title: Long term preventive aspects in oral rehabilitation of adults and elderly. I. Maintenance of balanced functional jaw interaction.
abstract: Prevention should be regarded as more important for the health than the cure. In adult and geriatric patients prevention is directed towards limiting disability rather than preventing the onset of the disease, since treatment is undertaken after pathological changes have taken place and some degree of invalidity is already present. Oral rehabilitation, if successfully performed, will limit the spread and further deterioration of oral conditions at any developmental stage of a functional pathology. The objective of the rehabilitation should not be the integrity of a single dental arch and certainly not the replacement of the lost teeth. Rather, the principle guiding guiding the treatment should be the achievement of a harmonious functional relation between the maxillary and mandibular jaws, so as to enable them to function in well balanced co-operation and force distribution. This objective may be best achieved by sensible planning and faultless execution, when the patient is younger, and most of his teeth and their supporting structures are still preserved.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003724:Dental Arch / Q000502:physiology; D003767:Dental Occlusion, Balanced; D003779:Denture Design; D003824:Denture, Complete; D003830:Denture, Partial, Fixed; D003832:Denture, Partial, Removable; D006801:Humans; D009065:Mouth Rehabilitation; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011313:Preventive Dentistry; D011379:Prognosis; D013997:Time Factors