Ageing and the risks of dental disease

ALTHOUGH it can be said that the major problems encountered in dentistry generally commensurate with the ageing of the patient, there are widespread misconceptions about such implications.

Interdisciplinary research in the human ageing process ( gerontology) has demonstrated that it is the effects of disease and not ageing itself, that is most significant for the perceptions of ourselves and others as either “youthful” or “elderly.” We should therefore not be afraid of age, but we should be aware of health hazards.

We often become demure about our age as we grow older. We are so influenced by today’s youth culture that youthfulness remains an ideal for us. But this is not necessarily so.
One of the first questions that patients must answer at a visit to the dentist is how old they are! We love to classify people by age. There is a risk, however, that the date of birth becomes more significant than the individual

The elderly person does not lose his or her teeth because he or she has grown old. They lose them because of diseases, the oral ills frequently mirroring the general ones. Remember the risk for disease increases with age.

Dental disease and alterations in saliva and mucous membranes may be early symptoms of a decrease of the general health status of elderly persons. These may indicate a weakening of the tissues’ biological defence thresholds for different stresses. Few tissues in the human body must withstand what the oral tissues must, not only in terms of possible dryness, but also mechanically, chemically, thermally, microbially, and galvanically (electrically).

Oral tissues occasionally show relatively specific signs of system illness and negative social habits, but, most frequently, less characteristic reaction patterns are seen that cannot immediately be diagnosed. These are, however, usually specific for the individual and thus form a kind of biological “ fingerprint” which changes with variations in health.

The vital point to note is that we are all biologically unique individuals from birth and become functionally, increasingly diverse until we are very old. We must sooner or later “pay” for the way we have used our biological resources. The way we pay has to do with our genetic makeup, and the combined influence of the accumulated consequences of many years of physiological age changes, bouts of illnesses, uses and abuses of medications, risky lifestyles and wanton neglect to care our bodies. From a psychological point of view, we become caricatures of ourselves in later years and invariably we must take the blame.

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