Fish oil reduces tooth loss mainly through its anti-inflammatory effects?

Competing at several steps of arachidonic acid metabolism, n - 3 fatty acids reduce production of highly active prostaglandins and leukotrienes and exert anti-inflammatory effects. They are also experimentally shown to be anti-osteoporotic. Periodontitis is responsible for most tooth loss in adult populations. If enough n - 3 fatty acids are provided, periodontitis with alveolar bone resorption may be controlled, and tooth loss may be prevented. In fact, n - 3 fatty acid administration lowered prostaglandin E-2 production, tooth movement and alveolar bone resorption in animal experiments. Aggression, which may be related with tooth loss, was also controlled with fish oil. Our cross-sectional data supported our hypothesis. We recruited 256 men (22-59 y of age) and 95 women (22-66 y), counted the numbers of their remaining teeth, and analyzed the fatty acid composition of the total phospholipid fraction of RBCs. The P-coefficient of the numbers of remaining teeth and EPA concentrations in the fraction was 0.89 (per 1% EPA, p = 0.007) after adjustment for 9 possible confounding factors. Long-term intervention studies with fish oil planned in the future should be able to test our hypothesis by just adding another very simple endpoint in those studies: tooth loss during the intervention period. This hypothesis may explain the linkage between periodontitis/tooth loss and coronary heart disease. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.