Dental Care for Seniors

Dental care is important at all ages, it’s more than just having teeth to chew your food. The state of your oral health is directly linked with your overall health.

It’s tempting when you reach your senior years not to worry about your teeth. After all, they’ve lasted you this young and you won’t need them for that much longer. But, besides the fact that you don’t know how many more years you’re going to need your teeth for, you need to be aware of the issues surrounding lack of dental care.

This will help you to overcome the biggest issue that faces professionals like this dentist Erskineville, the belief that tooth loss is inevitable. The simple fact is that it isn’t.

With good oral hygiene and regular checkups you can keep your teeth for the rest of your life.

Health Issues Connected With Poor Oral Hygiene

Maintaining your smile and your ability to chew food is a good thing, no matter how old you are. But, you may be more concerned about this when you realize that poor oral hygiene has been linked with the following issues:

• An increased risk of stroke and heart disease
• Periodontal disease increases the chances of contracting Alzheimer’s and other dementias
• Heart disease caused by plaque entering the bloodstream and hardening the arteries
• Infections caused by bacteria entering the bloodstream through cavities and other tooth issues
• Reduced absorption of nutrition as chewing becomes difficult. Seniors often select foods that are easy to swallow but not necessarily nutritious
• Gastric disturbances are common in seniors, especially acid reflux. This can damage the teeth more and increase the issues you face

That’s just the physical issues that you can face. Alongside this, there are a number of emotional issues that are caused by poor oral hygiene

Confidence

Losing the ability to may be seen as something that seniors have to accept but, bad teeth means that you’re always conscious of how your face looks when you talk and smile. The result is you’ll do it less which will affect your confidence in a variety of situations.

As you age and need to be social with others you’ll find it harder to do, this often leads to depression and other health issues connected with a lack of mobility. Your reduced mobility is simply a side-effect of not having the confidence to do things.

Cognitive Decline

Age often causes cognitive decline but the risk of this is increased by poor oral hygiene. Unfortunately, the decline of your ability to process information means that you’ll struggle in social situations, knocking your confidence further and increasing the likelihood of depression.

The key is to brush twice a day, floss at least once, and use products designed for seniors, such as dry mouth medicine. Most importantly, you’ll need to see your dentist every 6 months for a checkup, there really is no reason why you can’t have a full set of teeth in old age.