Providing Effective Dental Care for an Ageing Population

Abstract

BackgroundEffective treatment produces improved outcomes from the patient and clinician perspectives. The focus of this article is effective dental care for ageing patients. This concept must be embraced through research, education and, finally, clinical care. ResearchOlder adults often carry a higher burden of health and socioeconomic issues that limit their participation in clinical trials. This leaves providers to extrapolate care decisions from research in other age groups. However, electronic health records allow researchers to converge extensive medical, pharmacologic, and dental data, thereby including older patients in research questions. EducationDental and medical educators are tasked with teaching skills specific to ageing patients. This requires teaching and active use of concepts such as whole health and patient-centred outcomes. Provision of careFor ageing patients, effective care is precision care (the right care to the right patient at the right time). Clinicians must be trained and then actively participate in the interdisciplinary approach to assure good oral health for all older patients.