If you have dentures, then first let me congratulate you. It’s not easy dealing with the circumstances which caused you to lose all of your natural teeth, and you should be commended for taking action to deal with it.
As a Nashua dentist, I’m always proud when a patient accepts the treatment that they need which can improve their quality of life and make their smile less of a burden and more of a bonus.
But I’ve got some bad news about those dentures of yours. As necessary as dentures can be to deal with edentulism – otherwise known as tooth loss – sometimes the solutions to our problems can pose problems in their own right.
In the case of your dentures, you could be putting your health and your life at risk if you wear them while you sleep.
Indeed, a major study found that the chances of developing pneumonia increase by more than two-fold if you find yourself regularly falling asleep with your dentures. Think about that for a moment, and then ask yourself this question: How is it possible that my dentures could infect me with pneumonia?
The answer just might surprise you.
The Dark Side Of Dentures
In 2014, Tokyo’s Nihon University School of Dentistry released a comprehensive study that studied this seemingly strange link between dentures and pneumonia.
What the study found was quite shocking, but not exactly surprising: Of the patients who slept with their dentures, 40.8% of them developed pneumonia at a rate that was 2.3 times greater than the rest.
How was this possible?
Specifically, the researchers found that patients who slept without removing their dentures for the night were also more likely to have dirtier mouths. And in dentistry, a dirty mouth is essentially a breeding ground for numerous types of bacteria and other harmful microscopic organisms.
The researchers also found several other links between overnight wearing of dentures and oral health issues such as:
- Gum tissue inflammation
- Oral yeast infections
- Plaque development on gums and dentures
- Rampant bacterial growth
But it is the connection between oral health and your overall health is very instructive for us, because it means that, with the right kind of maintenance – made easier by a set of implant-retained dentures – you won’t have to worry about any of these health problems, and can instead enjoy the smile that you paid for!
Implant-Retained Dentures For Unrivaled Security
The strange-smelling adhesive powders and gels that are used to keep your old-school dentures in place can make it difficult to properly clean your mouth, which can make it easier for you to just leave the dentures in your mouth when you decide to go to sleep at night.
Although you should be regularly cleaning your dentures with a nightly soak, you’ll still have to deal with the messy clean-ups and unreliable results: Those adhesives don’t always work as they should, and can often let your dentures fall out of place at the worst possible moments.
Adhesive-fixed dentures also make it extremely difficult if not impossible to have the same kind of “bite force” that you can get with natural teeth or the next best thing, implant-retained dentures. Denture glue just isn’t strong enough to replicate the level of force distribution you get with a set of sturdy, glistening implant-retained dentures.
By installing a series of tiny anchors into the gum line, your new dentures will simply snap into place and won’t budge an inch. You can not only enjoy the foods you want, but it makes cleaning a piece of cake. Just simply snap them out of place, clean your mouth and your dentures, and you’re ready to go!
Compared with the lengthy process of removing those irksome adhesives, and you’ll not only be saving yourself time and headaches, but you could be saving your life!
Making A Critical Appointment
If you or a loved one wear dentures and haven’t been keeping them and the smile in which they reside clean, then a pneumonia risk could already be developing.
You need to call your dentist in New Hampshire for a professional mouth cleaning and examination, and from there we can discuss the many other benefits of implant-retained dentures.
To make your appointment, please call me at 603-546-7460, or click here to request an appointment through this website.