Dental caries associated with low muscle strength and sarcopenia suggests a recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.
Changes in the oral cavity can reflect other changes throughout the body. This study aimed to investigate the association of dental caries with muscle mass, muscle strength, and sarcopenia, and also to describe the microbial diversity, composition, and community structure of severe dental caries and sarcopenia.
A total of 1,442 participants aged from 50 to 85 years from a general community. Dental caries was assessed by the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index. Sarcopenia was defined as the presence of both low muscle mass (assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanning) and low muscle strength (assessed by handgrip strength). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to analyze the association of dental caries with muscle mass, muscle strength, and sarcopenia. Fecal samples underwent 16S rRNA profiling to evaluate the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota in patients with severe dental caries and/or sarcopenia.

Results
In the fully adjusted logistic models, dental caries was positively associated with low muscle strength, and sarcopenia, but not low muscle mass.
Severe dental caries was positively associated with higher alpha-diversity indices and associated with beta-diversity based on Bray-Curtis distance (p = 0.006).
The severe dental caries group and the sarcopenia group overlapped with 11 depleted and 13 enriched genera.
Dental caries was positively associated with low muscle strength and sarcopenia but not muscle mass, and this association was more pronounced in male individuals. Significant differences were observed in gut microbiota composition both in severe dental caries and sarcopenia, and there was an overlap of the genera features. Future longitudinal studies are needed to clarify causal relationships.
Reference:
Yang, Y., Deng, S., Wang, C. et al. Association of Dental Caries with Muscle Mass, Muscle Strength, and Sarcopenia: A Community-Based Study. J Nutr Health Aging (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1875-8