Newsday reports that a Nihon University School of Dentistry study of 254 elderly men and women found that “seniors who wear their dentures when they sleep are at increased risk for pneumonia.” The Japanese research found that those who wore their dentures at night “were about twice as likely to develop pneumonia as those who removed their dentures.” The researchers found that the risk for pneumonia associated with wearing dentures during sleep is “comparable” with the increased risk for the disease associated with “mental impairment, history of stroke and respiratory disease.” Thus, the study results suggest that senior citizens “should be told not to wear their dentures while they sleep.”

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