New Perspectives in Gerodontics Research

Objectives: Due to the changing demographics in the world more elderly people are being treated in the dental office. This is a great challenge but also a possibility for the oral health team and offers new perspectives in resarch. Since old age, unfortunately, also means frailty and diseases, medically compromised patients who often need to take several drugs daily are frequently seen in this context. Methods: Multi-discipline oral health research on the elderly has brought up several interesting associations in the oral health-systemic health link. Results: Mortality seems to link statistically with the number of remaining teeth. Poor oral health status appears to associate with frailty in general. Infections of the mouth may trigger inflammatory reactions with severe systemic consequences. Classical are the associations between oral infections and development of atherosclerosis in this respect. Old age and dry mouth go hand-in-hand mainly due to systemic medication. To the patient this often means unpleasant symptoms but also causes problems with oral yeast infections. Since antifungal drug resistance is an emerging problem, and the elderly often harbour yeasts other than Candida albicans, alertness among the health care team is called for in this respect, too. Conclusions: Declining quality of life of the elderly is another unfortunate fact calling for attention. One should not either forget that malignant diseases are diseases of the elderly. All the cited aspects offer indeed new challenges for geriatric oral research.