One hypothesis that would link oral disease and memory loss relies on new evidence about how tissue inflammation affects the brain.

一项关于组织炎症如何影响大脑的新证据进一步证实了这一假说，将口腔疾病和记忆衰退联系起来。

"Our hypothesis is that there are inflammatory byproducts that come from the infection that exists in our mouths, particularly with the more advanced form of gum disease," Crout says. "And these byproducts can then travel to areas of the brain that have been noted to be an area of concern for those patients with memory loss."

“我们的假设是有一些炎症的产物由于感染而存在于我们的口腔 之中，尤其随着越来越多的牙龈疾病形式产生”，克劳特说，“ 这些产物能散播到大脑中的相关区域，使病人记忆力衰退。”

But he says it can be hard to determine which problem comes first - memory loss or diseases in the mouth. To tease out that relationship, Crout says he will need to study patients over a long period of time, watching for both periodontal disease and memory loss. He recently received a large grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to pursue this line of investigation.

但他说，很难确定哪一个问题先出现——记忆力衰退或口腔疾病。为梳理这层关系，克劳特说他需要对病人进行长期的研究，观察牙周病及记忆力衰退。他最近获得了美国国立卫生研究院的准许来从事这项研究。

"For certain sets of patients, we would have their baseline inflammatory markers in the blood. In other words, we would know the levels of these different levels of toxins," Crout says.

“对于某一些病人，我们将掌握他们血液中基本的炎症情况。换言之，我们将了解这些不同的霉素水平。”克劳特说。

"We then have their dental examinations and their periodontal examinations done, and we then have their memory tests done. So what we would do is that we would then perform an intervention."

“接着我们会对他们进行牙齿和牙周检查，同时还会进行记忆力测试。所以我们要做的是对他们进行一些干涉。”

An intervention could be, for example, to give some patients an electric toothbrush that helps them care for their mouths better, while other patients just get a regular toothbrush. Then Crout would watch over time and measure what is happening to these patients' ability to remember.

举例来说，干涉就是在一些病人用普通的牙刷时，给另一些病人一把电动牙刷，它能帮助他们更好地照顾他们的口腔。接着克劳特会长时间观察和测量这些病人的记忆能力发生的变化。

He says it might take many years before he gets an answer to his hypothesis.

他说可能要花费许多年，他的假设才能得到一个最终答案。