Estrogen, a proven protector against bone loss, may also help women keep their teeth, a study suggests.
Researchers found that women who had used the female hormone regularly at some time were 24 percent less likely to lose their teeth than women who never took it.The research involving 42,000 post-menopausal nurses across the country was published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, which is based in Chicago.
Women are given estrogen to relieve symptoms of menopause and protect them from heart disease and osteoporosis, or bone loss. The study suggested that women who took the hormone were protected against tooth loss because the estrogen strengthened the jawbone.
Current estrogen users were 38 percent less likely to lose their teeth while taking the hormone than nonusers.
The researchers said their work should be interpreted with caution because they didn't have any information on the dental health of the participants.
They also warned that there is not much supporting evidence. The only other major study, of a California retirement community, found estrogen users had a 36 percent decrease in the risk of tooth loss.
"We do know that estrogen protects us from bone loss. But nobody has looked at the jawbone," said the lead researcher, Dr. Francine Grodstein of the Harvard School of Medicine. "The jawbone holds your teeth and it makes sense that if your jawbone deteriorates, you could wind up losing your teeth."
Dr. Diane Talentowksi, a dentist with Loyola University Medical Center who was not involved in the study, noted that some studies have found that estrogen taken after menopause may increase the risk of cancer.
"I think we have to look at more studies of post-menopausal estrogen research before we start counseling patients about taking it," she said. "If I noticed bone loss, I'd refer the patient to a doctor, and he would have to decide whether to prescribe estrogen usage, depending on the various cancer risk factors of the patient."
In the Harvard-Brigham and Women's Hospital study, 7,353 post-menopausal women reported having lost one or more teeth in 1990 and 1991.