What can I do to reduce my risk of pneumonia?
There are a number of things that you can do that can help reduce your risk of getting pneumonia:
- Cleaning your teeth twice a day will stop large growths of bacteria in the mouth and reduce the risk of them getting into your lungs. Sometimes the amount of bacteria growing on your teeth becomes so great that you can actually feel them with your tongue. We call this ‘plaque’ and it is easiy removed by brushing. Tops for better brushing can be found lower on this page.
- Surprising as it may seem, even small amounts of movement will make a difference to your lung expansion, so take every chance to move that you can. Walking is an excellent excercise, but even stretching and moving your limbs will help.
- Simple things like washing your hands before eating will reduce the chances of putting new bugs into your mouth where they may become established.
- Even if you have a denture, the risk of bacteria getting access to your lungs remains. You should always remove your denture at night, as research shows us that leaving them in does increase the risk of pneumonia. It’s best to remove them and clean them thoroughly before going to bed at night. A video on how to clean a denture can be found below.
A reminder of how you can effectively clean your teeth from the Australian Dental Association can be found here: