In a editorial commentary. Dr. Robert Stewart at the Institute of Psychiatry Kings College London, notes the oral health of people with cognitive impairment should, at the very least, receive more clinical attention.

He adds: “If there are good reasons to suspect a link between oral health and cognition, why has this received so little attention to date? The obvious but rather prosaic reason is the historic separation between medicine and dentistry. Clinical specialists have long been a hindrance to effective research (an example being the lack of attention paid to the vascular etiology of dementia) and it is about time that we accepted that disorders do not necessarily follow the way we structure our professions.”