Medical and psychosocial risk factors in the dental treatment of the elderly.
There is evidence to show that a 'new' type of elderly consumer of dental services is evolving with characteristics and expectations different from those of the 'old' elderly that dentists have had experience in treating. In providing care for the 'new' elderly the dentist must consider the many modifying factors which influence the type of treatment that an individual patient needs. These are the patient's lifespan, medical history, drug history, mental status, mobility, neuromuscular coordination, dental status, previous dental experience, the patient's or family's dental expectations as well as the economic status of the patient and the family. Before commencing treatment the dentist must also assess his/her own skills, the facilities in which he/she is working and the availability of equipment to carry out the dental procedures that may be required. Only when all of these considerations have been taken into account can rational dental care for an individual elderly person be planned and completed. The variation in what is rational is large. For one patient it may be no treatment at all and for another the most technologically sophisticated care dentistry can provide.
D000368:Aged; D003729:Dental Care / Q000379:methods*; D004194:Disease; D005260:Female; D005850:Geriatric Dentistry; D006801:Humans; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D012306:Risk