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Can extraction diminish my brain function or lower my IQ

D

Dawn65

Well-known member
Joined
May 26, 2019
Messages
126
Location
Warwickshire
...as if I don't have enough emotional problems around my teeth or lack of them, in the process of looking for a forum like this one, yesterday, I stumbled on some very credible looking academic articles suggesting that tooth extraction can change the brain, basically improverishing your intellect.

I was expecting one wisdom tooth out and woke up to six gone. Four were stolen from me when they had barely grown in because my vain mother thought I shouldn't have a brace. So, I am now missing 10!!!

I'm in a bad way. Facing one was my worst nightmare but SIX!!!! I feel I've been robbed of my face, my ability to eat, speak (I refused to speak for a fortnight after), every last scrap of my self confidence, not to mention my sexuality - I can never even kiss my husband ever again. I've lost everything that made me, me. Have they stolen my part of my capacity to think, too? I have to know.

(And no I did not consent to any other than one wisdom tooth! I was a child and not even spoken to about the first four and was so busy literally banging my head on the wall before hand on this occasion, they deemed I did not have 'capacity' and took my husband's consent with any "and anything else clause". I would never have consented to five more which were not loose and not hurting me.)

Have you heard of this research? Is it credible?
 
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No, there is absolutely no link between removing teeth and your IQ or brain functions.
 
I have never heard of this, and honestly don't believe a word of it. I had all four wisdom teeth out as a kid, plus 4 premolars out for braces. It never affected my intelligence. I got a full scholarship to college, and graduated with honors. I don't see how teeth would have anything to do with IQ.
 
Give us a link for the articles I'd love to see them...
 
(And no I did not consent to any other than one wisdom tooth! I was a child and not even spoken to about the first four and was so busy literally banging my head on the wall before hand on this occasion, they deemed I did not have 'capacity' and took my husband's consent with any "and anything else clause". I would never have consented to five more which were not loose and not hurting me.)

Wow! I'm not an expert on the Mental Health Act, but on the face of it, their interpretation of capacity sounds a bit dodgy. It doesn't sound as if it was a life or death situation that precluded allowing time for you to regain capacity. Have you thought of approaching a human rights solicitor?
 
Give us a link for the articles I'd love to see them...

Here's one of the ones I found:

Velundandi S, Chitre S (2017) The Effects of Tooth Loss on the Brain. J Ora Med Vol.1 No.1:5

[link to iMedPub, a controversial publishing website, has been removed- admin]
 
From the conclusion section:
These studies show a correlation between tooth loss and brain changes and function, but do not explicitly state that tooth loss can predict brain change and disease onset. Further studies can be executed to examine the if tooth loss is a predictor, this can be best done in a long term study. Studies can be done over the course of a subjects’ lifetime to determine the correlation between number of lost adult teeth to the type of diseases accumulated through the lifetime and what parts of the brain regions are affected.
 
Wow! I'm not an expert on the Mental Health Act, but on the face of it, their interpretation of capacity sounds a bit dodgy. It doesn't sound as if it was a life or death situation that precluded allowing time for you to regain capacity. Have you thought of approaching a human rights solicitor?


No, I didn't have capacity and I wasn't going to regain it. This happens every time either doctors or dentist have to do anything to me. In fact, putting consent papers under my nose is often the point where I loose the plot entirely. If she'd done that, I'd have started running and not stopped. After these things, I feel dirty, contaminated by the experience and so angry with myself for having signed it. I can't explain why.

On this occasion I feel so angry with myself for not having snapped to long enough to scream that "anything else" CANNOT mean more than one tooth. My husband would have stopped them if he'd known, but I was in theatre under a GA and he wasn't in there.

She thought she was acting in my best interest, even though it wasn't. I'm so angry and have nowhere to direct the anger but on me. I've been self harming (that's never happened to me before) ever since. I've hacked off all my hair. My dental phobia is worse than ever now, needless to say.

But I don't have any grounds for complaint
 
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Thanks for the link. Though on the face of it, it appears to be a serious research, it is obviously rather confusing than enlightening. The writers also state that there are cofactors and also the methodology is not good enough and has too many confounding factors.
In my view: surely there are changes in the body after a tooth extraction, in the brain and in other tissues. However, it will take us a long way to understand those.
And now a word of comfort: since most of the people had at least one tooth extraction in their lives, that means we got all equally stupider.
 
So, it could be possible, but we don't know...?

All it shows is that some people with tooth loss also had brain changes. The study doesn’t show any explicit link between the two.
 
Thanks for the link. Though it appears to be a serious research, it is obviously rather confusing than enlightening. The writers also state that there are cofactors and also the methodology is not good enough and has too many confusing factors.
In my view: surely there are changes in the body after a tooth extraction, in the brain and in other tissues. However, it will take us a long way to understand those.
And now a word of comfort: since most of the people had at least one tooth extraction in their lives, that means we got all equally stupider.


Thanks,.. but I'm missing 10. :(
 
The article is a suggestion that more studies be done to review the possibility of links between tooth loss and changes in the brain. Its not conclusive evidence that someone will lose intelligence or mental capabilities.

It sounds like you have been through a lot and I'm sorry you had treatment without consent. Have you considered getting help for dealing with the trauma? This link has helpful resources.
https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/help/depression/
 
Yes, I've been supposedly under the care of community mental health because of my dental (and medical phobias) since the dentist first said he wanted to take out the wisdom tooth... almost 18 months on I'm still on a waiting list for psychology and they took away my CPN right before the special care appointment to remove it came through, even though they knew the risk factors for me were about to sky rocket. They've left me with no support at all.

I think this is peculiar to our area though. Other people I know get a better service where they live, anyone local has had similar experiences to me :(
 
iMedPub is a predatory publishing site for "junk science". The journals are not actually peer-reviewed as advertised and often contain mistakes. It's part of OMICS Group Inc. You can read an article about them here:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/firm-...-junk-science-ordered-to-pay-us-50m-1.4367762

A serious journal would never have published this piece of research (?) which appears to have involved some mice (though the authors don't mention how many mice exactly). They then rather incongruously turn their attention to someone else's study of patients with Parkinson disease which found that Parkinson patients on average had more missing teeth, presumably because of loss of motor function and reduced ability to perform oral hygiene. How exactly the mice and the Parkinson patients are linked is unclear. It's almost like one of those random text generators...

Honestly, you've got nothing to worry about on the IQ front :)
 
imedpub.com is a predatory publishing site for "junk science". The journals are not actually peer-reviewed as advertised and often contain mistakes. It's part of OMICS Group Inc. You can read an article about them here:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/firm-...-junk-science-ordered-to-pay-us-50m-1.4367762

A serious journal would never have published this piece of research (?) which appears to have involved some mice (though the authors don't mention how many mice exactly). They then rather incongruously turn their attention to someone else's study of patients with Parkinson disease which found that Parkinson patients on average had more missing teeth, presumably because of loss of motor function and reduced ability to perform oral hygiene. How exactly the mice and the Parkinson patients are linked is unclear. It's almost like one of those random text generators...

Honestly, you've got nothing to worry about on the IQ front :)
Thanks, it's hard to tell if you're not in the field. Appreciate that
 
imedpub.com is a predatory publishing site for "junk science". The journals are not actually peer-reviewed as advertised and often contain mistakes. It's part of OMICS Group Inc. You can read an article about them here:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/firm-...-junk-science-ordered-to-pay-us-50m-1.4367762

A serious journal would never have published this piece of research (?) which appears to have involved some mice (though the authors don't mention how many mice exactly). They then rather incongruously turn their attention to someone else's study of patients with Parkinson disease which found that Parkinson patients on average had more missing teeth, presumably because of loss of motor function and reduced ability to perform oral hygiene. How exactly the mice and the Parkinson patients are linked is unclear. It's almost like one of those random text generators...

Honestly, you've got nothing to worry about on the IQ front :)

Thank you for this, I had read it three times to find out some details about the sample that aren't there (neither for the mice that got examined 21 days post mortem not for the people that got interviewed and CT-Scanned.. the methodology part is more than thin).. why is this thing called Journal of Oral Medicine?
 
Thank you for this, I had read it three times to find out some details about the sample that aren't there (neither for the mice that got examined 21 days post mortem not for the people that got interviewed and CT-Scanned.. the methodology part is more than thin).. why is this thing called Journal of Oral Medicine?

Thank you. Difficult to judge the quality of research if you're not in the field. And I'm not a scientist. Much appreciated.
 
Yes, I've been supposedly under the care of community mental health because of my dental (and medical phobias) since the dentist first said he wanted to take out the wisdom tooth... almost 18 months on I'm still on a waiting list for psychology and they took away my CPN right before the special care appointment to remove it came through, even though they knew the risk factors for me were about to sky rocket. They've left me with no support at all.

I think this is peculiar to our area though. Other people I know get a better service where they live, anyone local has had similar experiences to me :(

That sounds awful :(... have you thought of sharing your story on https://www.careopinion.org.uk/ . It's a place for sharing your experiences of UK health and care services, good or bad. Most people who post there get replies by the relevant organisations, so it's worth a shot. You can find out more about Care Opinion here: https://www.careopinion.org.uk/info/about
 
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