Poor oral health and hygiene are increasingly recognized as major risk factors for pneumonia among the elderly. To identify modifiable oral health-related risk factors, lead researcher Toshimitsu Iinuma, Nihon University School of Dentistry, Japan, and a team of researchers prospectively investigated associations between a constellation of oral health behaviors and incidences of pneumonia in the community-living of elders 85 years of age or older. This study, titled “Denture Wearing During Sleep Doubles the Risk of Pneumonia in Very Elderly,” has been published by the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR in the OnlineFirst portion of the Journal of Dental Research (JDR).
At baseline, 524 randomly selected seniors (228 males, 296 females, average age was 87.8 years old) were examined for oral health status and oral hygiene behaviors as well as medical assessment, including blood chemistry analysis, and followed up annually until first hospitalization for or death from pneumonia. Over a three-year follow-up period, 48 events associated with pneumonia were identified (20 deaths and 28 acute hospitalizations). Among 453 denture wearers, 186 (40.8%) who wore their dentures during sleep, were at higher risk for pneumonia than those who removed their dentures at night.
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