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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Senior Citizens Make Big Gains in Latest Oral Health
Reports
Gum disease, teeth loss decreasing rapidly for older
Americans
 May
1, 2007 The main stream news media jumped all over the latest report
on oral health, focusing on the problem decay is increasing for small
children. That is bad but the good news is that gum disease has dropped
tremendously for senior citizens, as has total teeth loss.
The report released yesterday by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says Americans of all ages continue
to experience improvements in their oral health. However, tooth decay in
primary (baby) teeth increased among children aged 2 to 5 years.
Based on data from CDC's National Center for Health
Statistics, the report, "Trends in Oral Health Status-United States,
1988-1994 and 1999-2004," represents the most comprehensive assessment
of oral health data available for the U.S. population to date.
The key findings for senior citizens included:
Moderate and severe periodontitis (gum disease) decreased from 10
percent to 5 percent among adults aged 20 to 64 years, and from 27
percent to 17 percent for seniors aged 65 years and older.
Among seniors aged 65 years and older, the percentage with complete
tooth loss (edentulism) decreased from 34 percent to 27 percent.
More Good News and How to Make it Better
The CDC had more,
too, about the oral health of senior citizens in The State of Aging and
Health in America 2007, which was released by the CDC and The Merck
Company Foundation at the 2007 Joint Conference of the American Society
on Aging and the National Council on Aging in March 2007. See
state-by-state report at bottom.
Oral Health:
Complete Tooth Loss
● The percentage
of older adults who have lost all their natural teeth has declined
substantially since the 1950s.
● This decline is
the result of major improvements in the field of oral health, including:
community water fluoridation; advanced dental technology; better oral
hygiene; and more frequent use of dental services.
● Periodontal
(gum) diseases are associated with diabetes and possibly with
cardiovascular disease and stroke. These and other oral health problems
among older adults can lead to needless pain and suffering; difficulty
speaking, chewing, and swallowing; and loss of self-esteem.
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More about
children |
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The news was not as good for
children.
Tooth decay in primary (baby)
teeth of children aged 2 to 5 years increased from 24 percent to
28 percent between 1988-1994 and 1999-2004.
The report did note significant
improvements in several areas for younger people. The prevalence
of tooth decay in permanent teeth decreased for children, teens
and adults. And more than one-third (38 percent) of children and
teens aged 12 to 19 years had dental sealants, a plastic coating
applied to teeth that protects against decay.
Other findings of the report
include:
The prevalence of tooth
decay in the permanent teeth of youths aged 6 to 11 years
decreased from approximately 25 percent to 21 percent, and among
adolescents aged 12 to 19 years decreased from 68 percent to 59
percent.
Thirty-one percent of
Mexican American children aged 6 to 11 years had experienced
decay in their permanent teeth, compared to 19 percent of
non-Hispanic white children.
Three times as many children
aged 6-11 (12 percent) from families with incomes below the
federal poverty line had untreated tooth decay, compared with
children from families with incomes above the poverty line (4
percent).
● The use of dental sealants
increased from 22 percent to 30 percent among youths aged 6 to
11 years and from 18 percent to 38 percent among adolescents
aged 12 to 19 years.
Among adults aged 20 to 64
years, 60 percent reported having a dental visit in the past
year during 1999-2004, compared with 66 percent reporting a
visit in the past year during the previous survey (1988- 1994).
The data in "Trends in Oral
Health Status-United States, 1988-1994 and 1999-2004" comes from
the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The
report is available at
Web site:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
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Call to Action:
Improving the oral health of older Americans: What individuals can do
Practices such as
drinking fluoridated water, carefully brushing and flossing teeth, and
getting regular professional oral health care have been shown to be
instrumental in maintaining and improving oral health. These measures
are the only ways that older adults can avoid losing their teeth or
requiring extensive treatment to curb infection and restore tooth
function. Rates of these conditions vary widely among older people of
different socioeconomic backgrounds, and this variation offers strong
evidence that many older adults have not benefited fully from
improvements in preventing and controlling oral diseases.
The following
guidelines can help all older adults improve their oral health and lower
their risk for dental decay and tooth loss:
● Drink
fluoridated water and use fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride provides
protection against dental decay at all ages.
● Practice good
oral hygiene. Careful tooth brushing and flossing to reduce dental
plaque can help prevent periodontal disease.
● Get
professional oral health care. Professional care helps to maintain the
overall health of the teeth and mouth and helps to detect precancerous
or cancerous lesions early in their development.
● Avoid tobacco.
Smokers have a seven times greater risk of developing periodontal
disease than nonsmokers. Spit tobacco containing sugar also increases
the risk of dental decay.
● Limit alcohol.
Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is a risk factor for oral and
throat cancers. Alcohol and tobacco used together are the primary risk
factors for these cancers.
● Get dental care
before undergoing chemotherapy or radiation to the head or neck. These
therapies can damage or destroy oral tissues and can cause severe
mucosal inflammation and ulcers, loss of salivary function, rampant
decay, and bone destruction.
Call to Action:
Improving the oral health of older Americans: Public health approaches
Throughout the life
span, oral health is integral to general health and well-being. The oral
health of older adults, however, is often neglected. Many older
adultsespecially those with low incomes or physical or cognitive
limitationsare not able to maintain their oral health or to the
dentists office. Medicare does not cover routine dental services, and
Medicaid coverage is limited and is available in less than half the
states.
Unmet oral health
needs among older adults will only be solved through the coordinated
efforts of clinicians, public health professionals, the aging services
network, and families. In the past, there has been little collaboration
among these groups. The goal of the oral health component of CDCs
State-Based Examples of Network Innovation, Opportunity, and Replication
(SENIOR) grant program is to identify unmet dental needs among older
adults and promote partnerships and community strategies to address
these needs.
Other promising
approaches
for improving the oral health of seniors include the following:
● State and local
efforts to ensure that community drinking water has optimal fluoride
content.
● Health
communication campaigns to increase public awareness of the importance
of oral health and the benefits of fluoride.
● Expanded
partnerships between clinical and public health professionals and the
aging services network to increase the likelihood that older adults with
limited resources and functional abilities receive dental services.
● Development of
innovative and effective strategies to prevent and treat disease.
State-by-State Report Card (2004)
Oral Health: Complete Tooth Loss (%) - click to state links
Does not include
territories |
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Upper Third (top performing 33%) |
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Middle Third (middle 33%) |
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Lower Third (lowest performing 33%) |
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A
confidence interval (CI) describes the level of
uncertainty of an estimate and specifies the range in
which the true value is likely to fall. The State of
Aging and Health in America online report uses a 95%
level of significance, which means that 95% of the time,
the true value falls within these boundaries.
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Rankings are based on the relative numeric scores for
each indicator, with a ranking of "1" indicating the
highest rank. |
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Grades are calculated as tertiles (thirds) and show
state performance relative to all other states.
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2003
data are used for Hawaii because no 2004 data exist.
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Note:
When comparing prevalence of variables across states or
years, we recommend the use of confidence intervals. If
the confidence intervals overlap, the difference is not
statistically significant. |
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This can also be found at
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/saha/IndicatorDetails.aspx?IndID=CTL&Gender=N&Sort=DA
For more information
on the problem of poor oral health among older Americans, visit
http://www.oralhealthamerica.org/OralHealthParity.html.
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