[Fundamentals of dentistry for geriatric rehabilitation--an introduction to geriatric dentistry]

The percentage of aged and very old people in the total population is increasing rapidly in industrialized countries. This is an important change which, in particular, affects the areas of dentistry and oral medicine. The problems that this older population group face need to be given more attention and need to be brought more into the forefront of dental and oral medicine. The percentage of the dentate population has increased in Germany, due to the high standard of the dental care. The percentage of the edentulous population has therefore decreased. It has become necessary for those who care for the elderly to adjust to caring for the dentate patient, as opposed to edentulous patient. It is important for all professions involved in the treatment and care of geriatric patients to have an awareness of the basic fundamentals of geriatric dentistry within general rehabilitation. Doctors in particular need to be given training in the detection of caries, peridontal diseases, and denture problems. They should feel confident working with the dentist and his team as partners in the rehabilitation treatment. It is especially important that geriatric hospitals have experience in dentistry and oral hygiene, so that damage to life-long well cared for teeth can be prevented, and so that poor oral hygiene during a hospital stay does not result in dental problems. Dentists and their teams will have to adjust to the treatment of aged and multimorbidic patients. More discussion is also necessary between dentists involved in all areas of geriatric medicine, geriatric dentistry, and geriatric dental public health.