Title: Overcoming barriers in oral health in later life
Abstract:
Collective and individual advancements in diverse societies and health-related services have resulted in a steady increase in populations with many elderly living longer lives. These achievements should be coupled with an improvement and maintenance of our elderlies’ health and associated quality of life.
Dentistry is also reflecting these trends with a larger number of elderly people retaining more of their natural dentitions. These outcomes are the results of advances in the various disciplines of dentistry with particular emphasis in the areas of population directed preventive measures and restorative oral care in all age cohorts.
However it is also observed that the elderly require more complex dental treatment in an attempt to maintenance good oral health. These complicated dental challenges are further compounded by declining health, inequality in health services on a national and individual level, increasing social and environmental impairments, which together act as barriers for certain elderly patients in their drive to access oral health. The dental team should strive to identify such barriers, in order to help the elderly overcome them.
