EHR Study Finds Wearing Dentures Could Hurt Overall Nutrition

Researchers linked patient records with the lab values of nutritional biomarkers to examine potential connections among the data.

The research, recently published in the Journal of Prosthodontics, linked dental records with the lab values of nutritional biomarkers. For this study, researchers used electronic health record data and electronic dental record data from more than 10,000 patients to try and longitudinally examine the nutritional status among denture wearers. "To the best of our knowledge, studies utilizing laboratory values of nutritional biomarkers in the serum and urine samples present in the EHR and linking with EDR data have not been reported previously," wrote researchers. The research team found that serum albumin, calcium and total protein decreased over the course of two years after patients received the dentures when compared to those without dentures. "In addition, it is also crucial that future research investigate the benefit of nutritional diet counseling for patients who receive teeth replacements – dentures as well as implants," said researchers.