Study ties childhood trauma to tooth loss later in life

CHICAGO, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Even if children grow up to overcome childhood adversity, the trauma they experience in early life causes them to be at greater risk for tooth loss, according to a study posted on the website of the University of Michigan (UM).

The researchers investigated three models of life course research: the sensitive period, defined as the time in a person's life during which events have the most impact on his or her development; the accumulation model, which examines the effect of the accumulation of events over the life course; and the social mobility model, which examines the change in a person's socioeconomic status during that person's life.

They discovered that more than 13 percent of adults over 50 had lost all of their permanent teeth. Nearly 30 percent of respondents experienced financial hardship, or had lost their parents or experienced a parental divorce by age 16. Ten percent of the respondents had experienced physical abuse and 18 percent smoked during childhood. Nearly half held a high school diploma or less and 20 percent of respondents had lived in poverty at least once since age 51.

The researchers suspect adverse events could impact tooth loss through socio-behavioral pathways. For example, abused children may be more likely to engage in health behaviors such as binge drinking or excessive consumption of sugar or nicotine use, which can contribute to tooth loss.

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