Menopause and oral health

Physicians do not deal with oral health, since this is traditionally accepted as the domain of dentists. But the mouth is obviously an important organ since people eat, talk and kiss with it. People usually think of oral health in connection with esthetics: how the teeth and smile look, how the lips look, or whether there is some malodorous breath. Are there any specific associations between menopause-related issues and oral health? Suri and Suri recently published an interesting review on oral health and menopause, in which they outlined the various relevant entities, such as the oral mucosa, the salivary glands and periodontal health, and the physiological alterations attributed to menopause [1]. During the menopause, women go through biological and endocrine changes, particularly in their production of sex steroid hormones, affecting their health. Because the oral mucosa contains estrogen receptors, variations in hormone levels directly affect the oral cavity. Suri and Suri claimed that there is a paucity of randomized controlled trials in this field and more data are needed, before the recommendations for oral health care in postmenopausal women can be made.

Author(s)

• Amos Pines
  Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Citations

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   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25316996
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