Geriatric Dentistry, Aging and Palliative Care
Geriatric dentistry deals with the older adults dental care which involves diagnosing, preventing, managing and treating of problems associated with age related diseases. Different problems include gastrointestinal, renal, cardiovascular, respiratory, and immune systems often decrease in efficiency, and these impacts upon the entire body, including oral health. The common oral changes in the aged people are tooth loss, dental caries, periodontitis, dry mouth and oral cancer. Palliative care comes into play when the patient’s disease is not responding to the treatment. Maintaining proper oral hygiene will be a difficult task for sick and critical condition patients, hence the main goal of dentist in palliative team should focus on oral comfort which comprise maintenance of oral hygiene, wipe out painful conditions like mucositis, infectious diseases, and ulcerative conditions of oral cavity.