Dental treatment needs of elderly patients seen at a university teaching clinic

There is little data describing the treatment needs of elderly patients seeking dental care at dental school clinics. Such information would be useful in curriculum planning for predoctoral dental programs in order to ensure that students receive a good basic education in the management and treatment of the older dental patient. In this study, the charts of all patients 65 years of age and older, accepted for treatment at the College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan, were reviewed. Data was collected from the dental examination chart and the proposed treatment plan. From a total of 156 patients, 41% were found to be edentulous at the time of examination or were treatment planned to become edentulous. A variety of treatment procedures including scaling, individual tooth restorations, fixed prosthodontics, minor periodontal surgery and extractions were found to be required in the dentate patients. The emerging elderly patient will probably retain more teeth and therefore have proportionately more treatment needs than the present elderly generation. Practicing dentists should be aware of these changing patterns of oral diseases. University teaching clinics must ensure the predoctoral dental student's access to an elderly patient pool to allow these students to gain experience in managing the dental needs of this growing sector of the North American population.