Hair Loss and Tooth Infection




All the organs in the body are closely connected. Foot massage takes care of the health of inner organs such as heart, liver, and lungs. Skin color and condition can usually say about liver or kidney problems… Some people strongly believe that there is a connection between teeth and hair: they say that a tooth infection might be a reason for a temporary hair loss such as alopecia areata.

This type of hair loss starts as a small patch on the scalp or body. Later it develops to large patches and sometimes to the loss on all scalp or even entire body hair. This is the quickest type of hair loss: sometimes a person might lose all hair overnight. Alopecia areata occurs in both males and females of all ages affecting approximately one out of 1,000 people. After several years most of the patients regrow hair without any treatments.

For many years the origin of this type of hair loss was not clear: the scientists all over the world thought that the problem was in weak immune system, lack of proper nutrients, infection or autoimmune disease could be the reasons for the hair loss. Professors José Antonio Gil Montoya and Antonio Cutando Soriano, of the Department of Stomatology of the University of Granada, have decided that the best way to fight the unexpected hair loss is to go to a dentist and to be properly checked because alopecia areata originates in tooth infections.

Here is what they say about the hair loss: “Alopecia areata is a dermatitis which presents the following signs: the typical pattern is for one or more round bald patches to appear on the scalp, in the beard, or in the eyebrows, or to undergo a loss of eyelashes. Alopecia areata is thought to be an auto-immune disease.” According to them hair follicles do not get destroyed with this type of hair loss, but they become weaker. Sometimes alopecia keeps coming back even after full restoration, because the main problem, a tooth infection, is not treated.

The scientists believe that the hair loss and tooth infections are closely connected because of the white blood cells: when the infection appears, the body starts producing an increased number of blood cells, but while the majority of them fight the disease, some go in a different direction and start attacking the nearby cells which do not have anything to do with the infection. Usually the attacked cells are hair follicles. As a result of this attack, the follicles stop working; hair falls out and does not regrow for some period of time.

On one hand the researchers believe that alopecia areata is located closely to the place of the infection, for example, an infection in upper molar will be reflected by bald patches at the hairline by the temple on the same side. On the other hand, they admit that this is not always the case: “We have found that bald patches caused by tooth infection are not always in the same place. They normally appear on a line projected from the dental infection and can thus can be located on the face at the level of the maxillary teeth, above a line through the lip-angle to the scalp, beard, or even to the eyebrow. Nevertheless, they can also be located far from infection outbreak.”

The research made by professors José Montoya and Antonio Soriano gives a really big field for investigation, because alopecia areata has been an unexplainable disease for many years. Finding the root for it can help people avoiding the problem and have it fixed quicker than usually. Nowadays dentists are instructed to look for patchy hair loss which might symbolize a tooth infection. And the patients should think about a dentist appointment if they experience alopecia areata.

Judy Bales

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Posted on February 24, 2010 
Filed Under Hair Loss, Hair Loss Conditions, Hair Loss Diagnosis, Hair Loss Reasons

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