[Periodontal disease].

Abstract

It has been shown that the inflammatory pathways are activated in the brains of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), and the use of anti-inflammatory drugs reduces risk to develop AD. It is understood that molecules involved in this inflammation promote pathological processes leading to AD, whereas other molecules work to protect neuron/brain function from toxicity found in AD pathogenesis. Periodontal disease is one of the diseases causing inflammation and recent lines of evidence show the link between these two diseases. In this paper, relationship between periodontitis and AD will be reviewed and the possible mechanisms, by which periodontitis may affect the onset and progression of AD, will be discussed.