Surveillance and monitoring of oral health in elderly people

Abstract

Continued ageing of the global population is expected to pose significant challenges to maintaining optimum lifelong health in individuals and populations. Oral health is an essential element of general health and quality of life throughout an individual's life course, yet it is often neglected in integrated approaches to general health promotion. Surveillance and monitoring systems are essential for developing oral health policy and strategy at both national and community levels. As major oral diseases, dental caries and periodontal diseases are core indicators for surveillance at every stage of life. In addition, oral mucosal lesions and masticatory function are essential indicators, especially in an ageing population. The assessment of risk factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption or dietary habits (e.g., sugar intake) is also important for oral disease prevention. Although surveillance is conducted through clinical examinations (normative assessments), this method is becoming more difficult to use because of high costs and human resource shortages, even in high-income countries. Alternative and less resource-demanding approaches, such as self-reported protocols, are therefore needed at the global level. The World Health Organization's (WHO) oral health surveillance and monitoring activities have evolved into the Oral Health STEPwise approach, which includes questionnaire surveys (Step 1) and clinical examinations (Step 2). Collaboration between international organisations such as the World Dental Federation (FDI), WHO and the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) is now needed to coordinate global oral health surveillance and monitoring systems.