If you lose teeth, will you topple over?

If you lose a tooth, another tooth, and several more teeth, will your balance suffer? That's the question behind this study:

"The effect of tooth loss on body balance control among community-dwelling elderly persons," M. Yoshida et al., International Journal of Prosthodontics, 2009 Mar-Apr;22(2):136-9. The authors, at Hiroshima City General Rehabilitation Center, Japan. begin by saying:

"Since tooth loss may be considered to affect postural control, the aim of this study was to compare body balance control among samples of edentulous and dentate community-dwelling elderly subjects."

(Thanks to investigator Alexandra Basford for bringing this to our attention.)