Geriatric Dentistry And The Aging Population
ADA statistics confirm that older patients are a large and growing segment of the oral healthcare market – growing so fast, in fact, that their numbers will double to over 79 million during the practice life of current dental graduates. This “Senior Tsunami” is changing dentistry. These aging boomers have a very different attitude towards dentistry than did their predecessors. They no longer consider tooth loss an inevitable consequence of aging and are willing to “put their money where their mouth is” if the dental team is trained to meet their unique needs. Providing quality dental care for these patients can be very rewarding but also very challenging due to an array of complex dental and medical conditions that become more common as we age.