Oral health among the elderly: a public health issue

Title: Oral health among the elderly: a public health issue

Abstract:

The presentation will have as main goals the description of the reality of oral health and the prevalence of oral diseases and tooth loss and consequent oral rehabilitation among the institutionalized elderly in Portugal, based on an epidemiological approach. The main problems identified among the elderly are: difficulty in maintaining daily oral hygiene habits, toothache, dental infections, edentulism and poor chewing capacity which may bring other systemic diseases associated. This presentation will show what has been done in the field of oral health education and promotion in various nursing homes in the centre region of Portugal and also some results of epidemiological studies developed in the past years among samples of institutionalized elderly, demonstrating that poor oral health among the elderly should be considered a serious public health issue and the definition of oral health promotion strategies are needed.

Biography:

Dr. Nélio Jorge Veiga completed his Masters Degree in Dental Medicine in 2006 at the Health Sciences Institute of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), Viseu, Portugal. In 2010 he completed the Masters Degree in Public Health at the Medical School of the University of Porto and in 2015 he also completed his PhD degree in Biomedicine at the Beira Interior University.  Dr. Nélio Jorge Veiga professor at the Health Sciences Institute of the UCP and also Clinical Director of the Dental University Clinic of the UCP. He is responsible for the knowledge field of Epidemiology and Community Oral Health at the same university and  have presented research in these fields counting with more than 100 congress presentations and publications in the form of abstract and over 30 scientific articles.