title: Oral health needs of the elderly--an international review. Commission of Oral Health, Research and Epidemiology Report of a Working Group.
abstract: There has been no significant evaluation of the oral health of the elderly on a global or regional basis. As a result of this deficiency in information a working group of the FDI was instituted in 1988. A questionnaire was developed and sent to 44 consultants and 53 national dental associations. Replies were recorded from 31 countries while another 10 countries reported that they had no data on their ageing populations. Most of the replies were from the so-called western industrialised countries and these countries had some data on issues such as life span at birth, life span at 60, dental utilisation data and edentulousness. Beyond these areas data was not representative and scarce. Recommendations are that studies of this size tend not to be very productive and should not be replicated. In the agrarian societies where caries rates in children are still low, preventive services need to be introduced as well as palliative services. In the industrialising countries where caries rates are increasing, the emphasis needs to be on prevention, while in the heavily industrialised countries it needs to be focused on prevention of caries, especially root caries.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology; D003752:Dental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017266:Dental Prosthesis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003906:Developing Countries; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000453:epidemiology