By gum, that’s glum! Losing your teeth is no laughing matter as research shows victims are up to a third more likely never to have a good chortle
By gum, it’s gloomy! Losing your teeth is no laughing matter as research shows victims are up to a third more likely to never have a good chortle
- People who are missing some of their teeth are less likely to smile
Losing your teeth really is no laughing matter, a study suggests.
Researchers have found that people who are missing some of their pearly whites are up to a third more likely to never have a good old-fashioned chortle.
Perhaps surprisingly, however, the lack of laughter is not related to any reluctance to show less-than-perfect dental alignment.
According to experts writing in the Journal of Prosthodontic Research, the real reason is that having trouble eating hard food can weaken the muscles used to laugh and make them less effective.
Previous research has found that older people laugh less and the researchers looked at whether tooth loss was a factor.
Researchers found that people missing some of their pearly whites are up to a third more likely to never have a good old-fashioned chortle (stock image)
They analyzed dental data on nearly 160,000 men and women aged 65 and older. More than 9,000, or about six percent, had a low level of laughter – defined as never or almost never laughing.
When the researchers matched this with tooth loss, they found that compared to people who had 20 to 32 teeth, those who had nine or fewer — and didn’t wear dentures — were 30 percent more likely not to laugh. Among those with 10 to 20 teeth and no dentures, the risk was 14 percent higher.
According to the research team, difficulty eating hard food in a probable cause.
This leads to less exercise of the masticatory muscles, which eventually makes them weaker. These muscles also play key roles in facial expressions, so a decrease in their strength will make laughing difficult.
According to experts writing in the Journal of Prosthodontic Research, the real reason is that having trouble eating hard foods can weaken the muscles used to laugh and make them less effective (stock image)
Meanwhile, there was no difference in laughing frequency between those wearing dentures and those with 20 or more teeth.
“The use of dentures prevented the decline in chewing function after tooth loss, and as a result, the frequency of laughter was maintained,” said the researchers Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Japan.
“Our results suggest the possibility that dental treatments can prevent a decrease in laughing frequency after tooth loss.”
Laughter has been linked to a number of health benefits – including strengthening the immune system, increasing pain tolerance and improving heart functioning.