Successfully Treating Older Adults: Techniques for the Entire Dental Team

Geriatric Dentistry

According to ADA statistics, 30% of the income in the typical general practice today comes from treating patients over 60. That income will increase rapidly as the number of older patients double to over 79 million during the practice life of current dental team graduates. These aging boomers have a very different attitude towards dentistry than did their predecessors. They no longer consider tooth loss an inevitable consequence of aging and are willing to “put their money where their mouth is” if the dental team is trained to meet their unique needs.  Providing quality dental care for these patients can be very rewarding but also very challenging due to an array of complex dental and medical conditions that become more common as we age. In this entertaining and informative presentation, solutions to common everyday problems that arise with older patients are clearly explained to give you increased confidence when treating seniors.

Clinical Topics to be Covered Include:

• Restoring root caries: matrixing, finishing, material selection
• Marketing to Seniors
• Adapting the new ADA preventive guidelines to older patients
• Clinical importance of heterogenicity in aging
• Managing xerostomia
• Making your practice “senior friendly”
• Tips for extracting teeth in older patients
• Clinical tips for treating Alzheimer’s patients
• The hazards of the medical clearance
• Clinically important aging changes to enamel and dentin
• Managing patients taking multiple medications
• Adapting the new ADA restorative guideline to seniors
• Pain control in seniors
• Blood pressure myths
• Managing patients with mobility problems
• Periodontal disease and aging: facts versus fiction
• Managing patients taking blood thinners
• Adapting the new ADA antibiotic guidelines to seniors
• Cardiovascular considerations
• Current premedication guidelines
• Dental considerations for stroke patients
• New recommendations for patients taking bisphosphonates.
• The dental team’s role in head and neck cancer prevention and treatment
• Implants in older patients
• Improving communication with the elderly
• What the hygienist needs to know about edentulous tissue health
• Treating oral viral and fungal infections in seniors
• Legal pitfalls of dental clearance for physicians
• Dental management of the Parkinson’s patient
• Clinical tips for dentures and implant-retained overdentures
• Esthetic dentistry considerations for seniors

The educational teaching methodology used in this course is a lecture presented in concert with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation. Both the in-person lecture and the PowerPoint presentation incorporate a variety of audio and visual cues to enhance audience members’ understanding and retention of key concepts. In addition, audience participation will be encouraged and facilitated by group discussions as well as question and answer periods provided for at the conclusion of each section.