This entry was posted on 12/18/2007 10:45 AM and is filed under ARTICLES.
By Michael Keating
A trend is occurring throughout our population that even spills over to dentistry. The trend is that people are living longer and longer. As this occurs, statistics also show that Americans are keeping their teeth longer.
This is borne out in two points that come to mind. The first is a study that was done by the American Dental Association. In the early 1960s, the average 65-year-old American had seven teeth left. In the early 2000s, that number was up to 20. The second is just observation. I have had the privilege of acting as the attending dentist for two nursing homes in the area. From my own observations, it can be seen that in the nursing home population there are more and more residents which have almost a full compliment of teeth.
Now that the trend is shifting toward people keeping their teeth longer, the onus falls upon us as oral health care providers to do the best we can to provide this population with quality care.
Recent research has well established the links between periodontal disease and heart disease. Making sure that the older population has healthy gums and helping the patient to understand why this is important is of the utmost importance.
I have had the misfortune to see a person steadfastly refuse periodontal treatment and choose to have an active infection in their mouth. The sad result of this particular patient was that his knee replacement got infected. When the bacteria were cultured, it was found that they were the same bacteria that caused his gum disease. Now not only did this patient need gum disease therapy, but he also needed a new knee replacement...
