We know that your quality of life is impacted by your dentures. Better quality dentures can improve your life on a daily basis. But that’s not all they could do: they could actually extend your life.
That’s according to a new study, which shows that wearing dentures could reduce your risk of death by nearly 20%!
A Large Study of the Elderly
For this study, researchers in China followed about 36,000 elderly people with a median age of 90 at the beginning of the study. They gave all subjects a questionnaire that asked about the number of teeth they had, and whether they used their dentures or not.
Over the study period, about 26,000 of the subjects died, but researchers still had about 146,000 person-years of data (following patients for an average of 4 years each). Using this large pool of data, they compared the odds of dying for people with 20+ teeth with those that had fewer teeth. They adjusted the risk for known risk factors like demography, education, income, lifestyle, and overlapping illnesses.
They found that the risk of dying during the study period increased for people who had fewer teeth. It was increased by:
- 14% for people with 10-19 teeth
- 23% for people with 1-9 teeth
- 35% for people with no remaining teeth
However, wearing dentures reduced the risk of death for people. On average, people who wore their dentures had a 19% lower death risk than those who had the same level of tooth loss but didn’t wear their dentures.
Dentures helped reduce the risk for people of all ages, but the benefit was greatest for men and for younger members of the population (though obviously not very young).
The size of this population and the comprehensive data analysis make us believe that this is a real effect, especially since it supports data we already know from other studies.
How Could Dentures Extend Life?
Of course, you might wonder how dentures might help extend your life. There are actually many ways that this could happen. For example, other studies show that bite force is related to lifespan. Helping people bite and chew could be how dentures help you live longer.
Well-fitting dentures also help people stabilize their core, making it easier to walk and reducing their risk of potentially deadly falls.
Wearing dentures also helps people have the confidence and desire to get out and socialize. Being homebound can increase a person’s risk of depression, which can shorten your life.
Can’t Wear Your Dentures?
Of course, wearing dentures is not as easy as some people think, especially if you have ill-fitting or uncomfortable dentures.
Fortunately, there are alternatives that can make it easier to wear your dentures in Columbia, SC. FOY ® Dentures are much more comfortable and supportive. They can reduce denture pain and increase your enjoyment of wearing dentures. Also, implant dentures can be made so that they are almost like having a new set of natural teeth. It’ll be so natural that you might forget they’re not your natural teeth.
Want to learn more about comfortable dentures that make it easy to wear them? Please call (803) 781-9090 today for an appointment with denture dentist Dr. Adam Hahn at Smile Columbia.
