Researchers from the University of Gothenburg’s Sahlgrenska Academy (Gothenburg, Sweden) and Region Västra Götaland have shown that a sparse bone structure in the trabecular bone in the lower jaw is associated with a greater risk of having previously had fractures in other areas of the body.

The Sahlgrenska Academy researchers have now taken an additional step with a new study that revealed that it is possible to use dental X-rays to study the bone structure in the lower jaw, and so predict who is at greater risk of fractures in the future. The study’s findings were published in the October 2011 issue of the journal Bone, and the latest findings are planned for publication in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology. “We’ve seen that sparse bone structure in the lower jaw in mid-life is directly linked to the risk of fractures in other parts of the body, later in life,” said Dr. Lauren Lissner, a researcher at the Institute of Medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy.

The study draws on data from the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg started in 1968. Given that this has now been running for over 40 years, the material is globally unique. The study included 731 women, who have been examined on several occasions since 1968, when they were 38-60 years old. X-ray images of their jawbone were analyzed in 1968 and 1980 and the results related to the incidence of subsequent fractures.

For the first 12 years, fractures were self-reported during follow-up examinations. It is only since the 1980s that it has been possible to use medical registers to identify fractures. A total of 222 fractures were detected during the whole observation period. The study revealed that the bone structure of the jaw was sparse in around 20% of the women aged 38-54 when the first examination was carried out, and that these women were at considerably greater risk of fractures. The study also demonstrated that the older the individual, the stronger the link between sparse bone structure in the jaw and fractures in other parts of the body.

Although the study was performed on women, the researchers believe that the link also applies for men. “Dental X-rays contain lots of information on bone structure,” said Grethe Jonasson, the researcher at the Research Centre of the Public Dental Service in Västra Götaland (Sweden), who initiated the fractures study. “By analyzing these images, dentists can identify people who are at greater risk of fractures long before the first fracture occurs.”

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