A significant shift in the dental health of older people is set to present more complex challenges for dentists, a new report suggests. While over a quarter (28%) of individuals aged 75 and above had no natural teeth – a condition known as edentulism – in the 1970s, this figure has now dramatically dropped to just 11%.
This increased retention of natural teeth means that, as the Association of Dental Groups (ADG) highlights in its report on the future of dentistry, "In the 1970s, it wasn’t uncommon for adults to lose all their teeth by the time they reached old age. Today we are looking at the majority of 65 plus-year-olds still having some or all their natural teeth which often require complex restorative work."
