In a new study from Europe, researchers have found that having a larger family may be linked to higher tooth loss in mothers—suggesting the old saying “gain a child, lose a tooth” might have more truth to it than first thought.
According to the researchers, there was no solid evidence to prove the notion that larger families leads to tooth loss in mothers. To investigate this, they drew on data from Wave 5 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).
SHARE contains information on the health, educational attainment and household income of more than 120,000 adults aged 50 years and over from 27 European countries and Israel. Wave 5 was completed in 2013 and included questions on the full reproductive history and number of natural teeth of 34,843 survey respondents, with an average age of 67.
For more information, see the Dental Tribune article.
