Objective This study evaluated postoperative changes in lip-closing force, buccinator pressure, and tongue pressure, and analyzed the relationships in female skeletal Class III patients with different vertical bite patterns (overbite < 0 mm vs >= 0 mm). Materials and methods Forty-two female patients who underwent orthognathic surgery were classified into Group A (overbite < 0 mm; n = 21) and Group B (overbite >= 0 mm; n = 21). Ten females with normal occlusion served as controls. Lip-closing force, buccinator pressure, and tongue pressure were measured preoperatively and at 3 months and 1 year postoperatively. Results In Group A, all muscle functions decreased temporarily at 3 months (p < 0.05 for lip-closing force and buccinator pressure) but were significantly improved at 1 year (p < 0.05 each). In Group B, tongue pressure decreased slightly at 3 months, while lip-closing force and buccinator pressure showed non-significant increases; all parameters were significantly improved at 1 year (p < 0.05 each). Significant relationships between tongue and buccinator pressures appeared at 3 months and 1 year in Group A, but only at 1 year in Group B. Tongue pressure showed a significant linear relationship with lip-closing force at 1 year in both groups. No significant relationship was found between overbite and any perioral muscle function. Conclusions Orthognathic surgery enhances perioral muscle function by 1 year postoperatively. However, recovery patterns and timing of relationships differ with vertical bite morphology, indicating a need for tailored rehabilitation strategies.
The relationship between sarcopenic obesity and masticatory function is poorly understood. This study aims to explore this association in community-dwelling individuals aged 75 years or older. This study analyzed data from 236 community-dwelling adults aged 75 years or older. Masticatory function was assessed using spectrophotometric measurement of gum color differences before and after chewing color-changeable gum (ΔE*ab). Participants were categorized into tertiles of masticatory function based on their ΔE*ab values. The tertiles were defined as low, intermediate, and high. Sarcopenic obesity was assessed using the Consensus statement of the Japanese Working Group on Sarcopenic Obesity. Bayesian multinomial logistic regression was employed to examine the relationship between masticatory function and sarcopenic obesity. The prevalence rates for obesity, sarcopenia, and sarcopenic obesity were 15.3
BACKGROUND:Frailty is a major health concern among older adults, and its association with oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) remains underexplored in longitudinal studies. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the association between baseline OHRQoL and physical frailty incidence at a 2-year follow-up in community-dwelling older adults. DESIGN:Prospective longitudinal study. SETTING:The study was conducted within the Tosa Longitudinal Aging Study framework in Japan. PARTICIPANTS:This study included 144 community-dwelling older adults (50 men and 94 women; median age, 81.0 years) with complete data who participated in the Tosa Longitudinal Aging Study in 2016 and 2018 and were not categorized as physical frailty in 2016. MEASUREMENTS:Baseline assessment included OHRQoL, which was evaluated using the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI; range 12-60), with higher scores indicating better OHRQoL, oral function, and general health status. The incidence of physical frailty was defined using the revised Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. The association between the GOHAI score and physical frailty was assessed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS:The median baseline GOHAI score was 58. The incidence of frailty after a 2-year follow-up was 13.9 % among the participants (18.0 and 11.7 % for men and women, respectively). Each point of the GOHAI score was associated with an 11 % reduction in frailty risk over 2 years after adjusting by age, sex, number of teeth, Food Diversity Score, Geriatric Depression Scale score, eating alone, smoking, and more than five medications (adjusted odds ratio: 0.893; 95 % confidence interval: 0.810-0.984). CONCLUSIONS:This longitudinal study showed that a higher baseline OHRQoL, based on the GOHAI score, was linked to a lower incidence of physical frailty among community-dwelling older adults after 2 years.
Bmi1 is a polycomb protein localized in stem cells and maintains their stemness. This protein is also reported to regulate the expression of various differentiation genes. In this study, to analyze the role of Bmi1 during dentinogenesis, we examined the immunohistochemical localization of Bmi1 during rat tooth development as well as after cavity preparation. Bmi1 localization was hardly detected in the dental mesenchyme at the bud and cap stages. After the bell stage, however, this protein became detectable in preodontoblasts and early odontoblasts just beginning dentin matrix secretion. As dentin formation progressed, Bmi1 immunoreactivity in the odontoblasts decreased in intensity. After cavity preparation, cells lining the dentin and some pulp cells under the cavity were immunopositive for Bmi1 at 4 days. Odontoblast-like cells forming reparative dentin were immunopositive for Bmi1 at 1 week, whereas their immunoreactivity was not detected after 8 weeks. We further analyzed the function of Bmi1 using KN-3 cells, a dental mesenchymal cell line. Overexpression of Bmi1 in KN-3 cells promoted mineralized tissue formation. In contrast, siRNA knockdown of Bmi1 in KN-3 cells reduced alkaline phosphatase activity and the expression of odontoblast differentiation marker genes such as Runx2, osterix, and osteocalcin. Additionally, KN-3 cells transfected with siRNA against Bmi1 showed reduced nuclear transition of β-catenin and expression of phosphorylated-Smad1/5/8. Taken together, these findings suggest that Bmi1 was localized in the odontoblast-lineage cells in their early differentiation stages. Bmi1 might positively regulate their differentiation by accelerating Wnt and BMP signaling pathways.
