Frail elderly-dental outreach-the future in 3-D

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Jon Strom

University of Alberta, Canada

: Dent Health Curr Res

Abstract

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The Increase in longevity and the looming Geriatric Tsunamii of frail elderly is posing a problem for provision of good oral health as patients lose access to the dental office due to reduced mobility. how will the dental profession deal with the obvious complications that and demographic tidal wave presents in the coming decades. As there is a revolution in the provision of extended care in the medical profession so there must be by the profession of dentistry. Here with we will try to prognosticate where this future dental practice modes may provide some solutions. It is difficult to reach out to long term care institutions and homebound dental patients with a good oral hygiene program let alone investigate and make reliable surveys of their oral health status with the present technologies we have. However there are potential new technologies and systrms which could allow access to outpatients by Dental Personnell from private practice clinics. The use of Android Phones to transmit images and text information from remote locations would allow dental records to be built up and sent to the dental office for perusal by dental professionals. More significantly remote use of 3D dental models might allow provision of appliances that could enhance oral hygiene as well as treat dental deficiencies. In this presentation we will review and present possible scenarios that would allow dental offices to institute outreach programs that would allow them to monitor their Patients oral status and provide programs to enhance their Oral Health even though actual access to the dental office itself is compromised. Better nutritional programs and outreach programs can be instituted very easily. This presentation will suggest what the future of outreach dentistry might look like and bring efficiencies and effective protocols to the frail elderly who at present have difficulty accessing good oral hygiene monitoring or successful methods of good hygiene practices. The lack of which can be devastating for the frail elderly with medical complications.

Biography

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Jon Strom practiced in West Vancouver for 42 years after 5 years in Armed Forces. He followed his patients who moved into long term care homes. He was puzzled and challenged by the difficulty in caring for their dental needs in a very restricted setting. He ended up providing dentistry for ten years and tried to develop protocols for those that couldn’t access his clinic easily. He was on the long term care committee for the Vancouver Dental Society and worked to fund a Geriatric Chair at UBC. He took up the study of providing dental services to the Frail Elderly who through physical and sensory decline have lost access to Dental Clinic enviroments. He will describe some new technologies that will enhance effective Dental care in this area.

E-mail: jon.strom@shaw.ca