Association of pentosidine and homocysteine levels with number of teeth present in Japanese postmenopausal women

Introduction Little is known about whether substances inducing tissue protein degeneration in the oral cavity are associated with the number of teeth present in postmenopausal women. We sought to investigate the association of urinary pentosidine and serum homocysteine levels with the number of teeth and subsequent tooth loss in Japanese postmenopausal women. Materials and methods Among participants in the Nagano Cohort Study, 785 postmenopausal women (mean age, 68.1 years) participated in the present study. The number of teeth was re-counted at the time of follow-up in 610 women. Poisson regression analysis was used to investigate differences in the number of teeth among quartiles of pentosidine or homocysteine, adjusting for covariates that correlated with the number of teeth. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to evaluate the association of subsequent tooth loss with pentosidine or homocysteine levels. Results Pentosidine quartiles were not associated with the number of teeth at baseline. Participants in the highest homocysteine quartile had significantly fewer teeth at baseline than those in the third and lowest quartiles ( p < 0.001 for both). Those in the second quartile had fewer teeth than those in the third ( p = 0.001) and lowest ( p < 0.001) quartiles. An increased risk of tooth loss during follow-up was significantly associated with higher urinary pentosidine (hazard ratio = 1.073 for 10 pmol/mgCre; p = 0.001). Conclusion Postmenopausal women with higher homocysteine levels had fewer teeth at baseline. A higher pentosidine concentration increased the risk of subsequent tooth loss. High pentosidine or homocysteine concentrations may be associated with tooth loss in postmenopausal women.