Concern over oral health of older people

There is growing concern about the oral health of older people, after it emerged over half had not visited a dentist for more than three years.

The authors of a report on barriers to dental attendance say it is vital older people are educated on the importance of visiting the dentist and given better access.

The study, published in the Irish Medical Journal, is based on a questionnaire completed by 105 patients, aged over 65, attending the geriatric medical outpatient clinic at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin over three months last year.

Over 50% of the patients had not visited a dentist in over 36 months: 61% said they had no problem or need for treatment while 54% stated they did not need to go as they had no teeth.

Surprisingly, only a small number said dental treatment was too expensive (6%) or that there was no access to downstairs surgeries (2%).

Over half of the patients (51%) left school at primary level, with more women (62%) having left school at this level than men. More than three-quarters of the patients (77%) had either a partial or full denture — 79% were women and 53% of the women had only attained a primary school education.

Of those patients diagnosed with ‘vascular dementia’, 83% had not visited a dentist in over three years. However, patients with no diagnosis of a cognitive impairment visited the dentist more regularly — only 43% had not been in over 36 months.

The study was conducted by Daire Shanahan from the Department of Age-related Healthcare at Tallaght Hospital and Prof Des O’Neill from the Centre for Ageing, Neuroscience and the Humanities at TCD.