I don't know about Dementia, but I do know that rotting teeth and bad teeth hygiene can mimic syphyllus, which in turn can create 'madness' .. so maybe there is some kind of link there?
**shrugging**
Never heard any words on a link for specifically dementia however.
No harm in asking !! Maybe somebody else has heard something!
Thanks, Angel Bear.
My uncle has had lots of work (ie fillings, crowns) done on mouth. Has had good hygiene for 60 yrs. His children think the mercury is causing his dementia.
My mother got dementia late in life and had excellent teeth, hardly any fillings, and at age 98 still has most of her own teeth. She credited her excellent teeth to a poor childhood with no access to sugar or candy. I doubt if there is a connection between mercury in fillings (amalgam, in which the mercury is inert) and dementia.
You're right. I did a google search on "mercury dementia"
A lot of info came up. I found this:
"After an exhaustive investigation and review of the evidence, including the form of mercury in question, the route of exposure, and the dose, the Public Health Service concluded that dental amalgams do not pose a serious health risk (Public Health Service, 1993)."
I also found this on MedlinePlus:
"Prior theories regarding the accumulation of aluminum, lead, mercury, and other substances in the brain leading to AD have been disproved. The only way to know for certain that someone had AD is by microscopic examination of a sample of brain tissue after death."
However, there were numerous other sites saying mercury can cause dementia.
So that would mean nobody with full dentures would have dementia? My mother and father both had full dentures by the time they were in their forties. They are now 85 and 93 years old--no dementia yet.
There are some ideas that die slowly. One is that going out with wet hair/no coat/no hat etc etc on a cold day will cause a cold. Science has proved that they don't cause a cold. I think the theories in the 80s and 90s about all the harm mercury fillings can do were disproved, but the general public still believes in them. Many people have had all the old fillings in their teeth replaced by non mercury fillings (to the delight of the dentists' bank accounts) but were disappointed to find no improvement in their chronic health problems.
It seems to me that you can get dementia with or without ever having had mercury fillings, statins, congestive heart failure, Parkinson's disease, relatives with AD, or a host of other conditions. I just hope research will finally find the cause, a vaccine, and a cure ... SOON!
Oh Good.. there's hope for me yet .. 1 3/4 dentures !! The teeth left don't have fillings!!
I am a goner. Because my mother had to have her teeth replaced so early in life she made sure we went to the dentist often. I must have at least six mercury fillings. One had to be replaced recently and I asked my dentist if he was putting a mercury one in. He said the new ones have so little mercury it is not harmful and last so much longer than the porcelain ones. Ah, well.
I don't believe that there is one certain thing that causes dementia. But still I wonder...my dad and grandpa ate a LOT of fish for many years. We live near Lake Michigan and the amount of mercury in fish from there was extremely high for years due to the steel plants and other industries dumping toxic waste into the lake. They've cleaned it up now. Used to be we'd go to the lake to swim and see dead fish floating on the water. And our parents didn't know any better.
But then again my aunt and grandma (mom's side) lived several hundred miles from us and they both suffered from AD. Neither of them had fillings or ate much fish....
Well some dementia's are genetic, so if that's in your gene pool it wouldn't matter how many fillings or fish you ate ... you would still be predisposed in getting it.
And some dementia's are brought on: Alcohol induced, drug induced etc ....
Some dementias CAN be reversed: B12 deficiency, thyroid problems etc ..
And other dementia's are simply Old Age .. our bodies ARE outliving our Brains because we're living for so long. Dementia isn't NEW, it's just we're living longer and we haven't evolved well enough yet so it's showing up more. If you remember back to your history lessons ...... 45 was extreme old age not that long ago really (100 years) .. no cases of dementia back then !!
Some dementia's are brought on by illness: Syphyllus, meningitis, brain damage (accidents) ......
AND ........... some dementia's just happen because the brain is an unknown vault and nobody really knows it's full extent ...
Like I've said before: My ex-charge was an intelligent woman. She could do the TIMES crossword (the cryptic one) in under 2 minutes .. she looked after her body, did yoga, ate right .. imbibed in a little bit of wine & sherry but only a small amount, kept herself educated .......... and yet ... she got dementia.
I just think sometimes we can over-analyze things TOO much and look TOO hard for answers that still aren't there because we're still looking for a reason why our loved one has been afflicted. The best thing we can hope for is a vaccine, but that is years away because they STILL don't understand it all yet ...
Either way you look at it .. your loved one has it and while their world is changing, so will yours .. until such point that they reach the "I don't care" stage (which is such a blessing)
Like Angel Bear said, there is a greater risk of other diseases from bad teeth. More so than dementia I would think.
There is a higher risk of diabetes, heart problems, arterial schlerosis(clogged arteries. Bacteria from the bad teeth finds it's way into the bloodstream and cling to the artery walls at the heart starting the clotting process.
Re: can dental problems cause dementia? 
