%0 Journal Article
%T Periodontal Health and Caries Prevalence Evaluation in Patients Affected by Parkinson's Disease
%A Marco Cicci¨´
%A Giacomo Risitano
%A Giuseppe Lo Giudice
%A Ennio Bramanti
%J Parkinson's Disease
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/541908
%X Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder related to the loss or absence of dopaminergic neurons in the brain. These deficits result in slowness of movement, tremor, rigidity, and dysfunction of behaviour. These symptoms negatively influence the patient¡¯s capability to carry out the daily oral hygiene manoeuvres. The aim of this work is to record the oral health condition of PD patients evaluated at the IRCSS Bonino-Puleio in Messina. The oral health of 45 consecutive PD patients (study group) with neurologic diagnosis based on United Kingdom Brain Bank Criteria has been compared with that of another 45 no PD patients of the same age (control group). The evaluation of the general oral condition was recorded underlining tooth loss, active periodontal disease, and presence of untreated caries. The frequency of untreated caries, periodontal diseases, and missing teeth of the study group was significantly higher than in control group. Based on the data results, clinicians should direct high attention to the oral hygiene of patients with PD, above all at the early stages of the caries or periodontal disease, in order to prevent serious evolution of those pathologic dental conditions that may finally result in the tooth extraction event. 1. Introduction Parkinson¡¯s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder typically characterized by motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability with resting tremor. In addition, cognitive impairments are present, even in early disease stages, and predominantly affect executive functions such as planning abilities. Moreover, regarding a high risk for clinical dementia and clinical depression nondemented and nondepressed PD patients manifest themselves subtle cognitive problems, even in the earliest disease stages, which reflect incident pathological dementia and quality of life [1¨C6]. The motility impairment in PD patients is related with the damage and loss of about 60 to 70% of the neurons that memory and release dopamine in the substantia nigra. This disability results on the deletion of the neurotransmitter in the striatum area of the basal ganglia, basic to produce smooth and coordinated body movement [7¨C9]. Therefore, a large spectrum of no motor signs like hypotension, cardiac dysrhythmias, sweating bladder constipation, and sex dysfunction is typical of the PD Patients [10]. Parkinson tremors usually begin in a hand and then inducing alteration of the movements. Through the disease development, tremor involves the legs, face, tongue, and mandible [2,
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/pd/2012/541908/