Need a good reason to schedule a dental check-up? Twice annual dentist visits don’t just improve your oral health-- they may also help prevent pneumonia.
Researchers recently analyzed the records of more than 26,000 people who had completed the 2013 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a questionnaire that asked about the utilization of healthcare services. The researchers found that people in the database who never had dental check-ups had an 86% increased risk of contracting pneumonia than those people who went to the dentist twice a year.
The Link Between Oral Health and Pneumonia Prevention
This recent analysis isn’t the first study that has found a connection between poor oral health and pneumonia. But what exactly does seeing the dentist regularly have to do with preventing pneumonia, an infection of the lungs?
There are more than 30 different causes of pneumonia and dozens of bacteria types that can lead to a pneumonia infection. Pneumonia-causing bacteria can live in a healthy throat but, under certain circumstances, may be inhaled or aspirated into the lungs, where they can multiply and spread through the bloodstream.
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| Pneumonia diagram. Source: nih.gov |
There’s no way to eliminate oral bacteria that may cause pneumonia completely, but going to the dentist twice a year for a routine teeth cleaning and exam can reduce the amounts of disease-causing microbes in the mouth and possibly could help prevent pneumonia.
Make It a Habit to See Your Dentist
There are about 3 million reported cases of pneumonia in the U.S. every year, and this disease is the second most common cause of hospital admissions for American adults, behind only giving birth. It’s the most common cause of hospitalization for American children.
People who have pneumonia may experience unpleasant symptoms such as fever, chills, shaking, coughing (with or without mucus), and shortness of breath after mild exertion. In healthy adults, pneumonia symptoms may disappear in two to three weeks; however, older adults or people with other health problems may take six to eight weeks to recover.
Knowing the possible symptoms and recovery time for pneumonia, it’s clearly preferable to take a few basic precautions to help prevent pneumonia rather than skipping those precautions and risking infection. While regular dental check-ups are no guarantee that you’ll avoid pneumonia, they can help reduce your risk of getting this type of lung infection.
