What is Geraitric Dentistry ?

Geriatrics is the branch of science that focuses on health promotion, prevention, and treatment of disease and disability in later life. The term geriatrics comes from a Greek word geron which means old man and iatros meaning healer. Geriatric dentistry (gerodontology) is the delivery of dental care to older adults involving diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of problems associated with normal aging and age-related diseases as part of an interdisciplinary team with other health professionals.

Geriatric endodontics (geroendodontics) is a branch of endodontics and gerodontology to provide elder people good-quality endodontic therapy to ensure them a better quality of oral health and overall to improve their life quality by saving teeth through endodontic treatment. It is mainly about the effect of aging on diagnosis of pulpal and periapical disease and successful root canal therapy. Endodontic procedures in the geriatric patients have been considered challenging from a technical perspective since there are high chances that the root canal system being “sclerosed.”  

An endodontist working with older patients must be able to – 

• Identify the oral conditions common in geriatric age group, which goes with pathology and that which increases in frequency with age 
• There is need to obtain medical history of the geriatric patient 
• Obtain a psychosocial history which describes factors influencing the older patients’ dental needs and ability to obtain care
• Use multidiciplinary approach

Why is Geratiric Endodontics/ Dentistry Gaining Importance ?

Geriatric endodontics is gaining a more significant role as can be seen from the demographic data on aging population of the world (source: UN) 

• 1900—10–17 million people over 65 years (less than 1% of the world population of that time) 
• 1992—362 million over 65 years (6.2% of the world population) 
• 2030—(estimated) 2–2.5 billion people over 65 years (20% of the world population) 
• 2035—26% of the world population will be over 65 years old 

Scientists have divided the study of the older population into several categories based on chronological age: 

• New-old (55–64 years) 
• Young-old (65–74 years) 
• Middle-old/older old (75–84 years) 
• Old-old/oldest old (85-plus years) 

Challenge in treating geriatric patients is this group of individuals, the teeth are subjected to various physiological wear and tear, as well as pathological disease conditions. Managing the compromised dentition with a variety of risk factors is indeed a multifaceted challenge for the dentist. A dental surgeon must understand and should be able to perform clinical procedures with geriatric patients considering their special needs with good clinical skills and competency.

Article by: Dr. Siri P.B.