Oral health needs are different for every age. For people who are 65 and older, a host of oral conditions and diseases are considered common because they are part of the generation that were raised without the advantage of modern health care and regulated community water fluoridation, plus without the wide availability of fluoride toothpaste, dental floss and other home-use products for dental hygiene.
In Scottsdale, 16.7% of residents are 65 years and older, and most of them are living alone. This increases the dental health risks for the older citizens. Then again, Scottsdale is lucky enough to have more economic stability than in other areas in the state. Thus, most of the city’s older citizens do not have to depend on government subsidy for their health care. All they need is a push to get themselves to the dentist.
According to a national-scale study, around 25% of Americans over 60 years old have lost all their natural teeth. This statistic, interestingly, is different for every state. In West Virginia, around 42% of people over 65 years old are toothless, while it’s only 14.9% in Arizona and 13% in California. The factors involving these differences could be the kind of potable water available in the area, the people’s access to oral health care and their economic status.
In many of the Scottsdale dental offices, dental implants are now offered. Dental implants, in a nutshell, is the surgical implantation of an aluminum metal bit in the site of the missing tooth to serve as the new root that will then anchor in a tooth prosthesis.
Dental implants are a great alternative to dentures as a means of restoring old teeth. They function just as teeth do, and with proper care, they can last forever without the inconvenience of taking them out and putting them back in as dentures are used. Most Scottsdale and Paradise Valley dental offices use dental implants to anchor in bridges and partial dentures for people who do not want to go all the way with the implants.
Dental implants may be the best way to replace lost teeth, but older citizens must also make it a point to personally maintain their teeth and their implants through the available dental hygiene products on the market. Scottsdale dental center specialists recommend that regular maintenance is a preventive measure to avoid complications like heart diseases caused by oral disease complications.