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Ageing of the population, together with prolonged retention of teeth, has brought new challenges to dentistry. Whereas in the past oral care for the elderly was restricted to provision of dentures, older patients are now presenting with dental caries and failed restorations. These problems may have an impact on their general health and quality of life. Poor oral hygiene, xerostomia and diet are among the risk factors for caries in older patients and need to be addressed in order to achieve control of the disease. Carious lesions can be treated conservatively in many cases or may need surgical management.
Clinical Relevance: Caries is an oral health issue among older patients and can result in tooth loss. Oral health has a great impact on general health and quality of life of elderly people.
Article
Older patients can present with oral health problems including dental caries. This can affect an individual's general health and quality of life and result in tooth loss.1 Even those patients who did not have a history of dental pathology in the past may develop caries at a later stage in life. Caries can present in the older patient as primary or secondary lesions. Some of the reasons for the development of caries in the elderly are lack of a preventive culture, use of medications that can result in a dry mouth, iatrogenic factors, and cognitive and manual dexterity problems which impair oral hygiene.
Uptake of dental services by elderly patients is generally low. This may be due to reduced mobility, high cost of dental treatment, negative attitudes or fear of dental procedures and lack of perceived need for oral care.2,3 The lack of dental/prevention culture among the elderly could also be explained by the fact that, for many years, public oral health promotion programmes were principally aimed at children and adolescents. Older patients were not included in these programmes as their needs were usually perceived as being restricted to the provision of dentures.
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