The Evaluation of Relationship Between Eichner Index and Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract   Background & Aim: Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative and progressive disorder resulting in cognitive impairment. Tooth loss is suggested as a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. In order to investigate the relationship of Eichner index and Alzheimer’s disease, this study is conducted at 2018 in the Neurology Department of Imam Hossein Hospital and Department of Prosthodontics, Dentistry faculty, Tehran medical sciences, Islamic Azad University. Eichner index was evaluated and registered by an examiner Material and methods: This study was conducted as case-control design. Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was made based on MMSE test by the neurologist as single blind design using biting wax. In order to quantification of Eichner index, numbers of 0 to 7 were assigned to sub-indexes of C to A1. The quantified Eichner index was statistically evaluated using Mann–U-Whitney test. Results: The study was performed on 140 samples (70 in study group and 70 in control group). The age for study group was 75.9±18.5 year and 76.5±14.3 year for the control group, which were not statistically different (p>0.05). Eichner index values was 1.16±1.63 for the study group and 2.3±2.07 for the control group. Statistical test showed that the difference between the two groups is significant (p=0.01). Conclusions: Within the limitations of this article, it seems that there is a statistically significant relationship between Eichner Index and Alzheimer's disease and decreasing of posterior supporting dental occlusion was presented more in Alzheimer's disease patients vs. normal population.