{"id":1020,"date":"2019-09-03T13:17:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T13:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2019-09-03T13:17:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T13:17:12","slug":"the-golden-years-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/the-golden-years-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GOLDEN YEARS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/download.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1025\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nGolden Years are much more \u201cgolden\u201d if your teeth are in good shape. One of the\nmost difficult areas I have had to address in my time as a dentist are issues\nconcerning aging patients, specifically those who require assisted or nursing\ncare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether\nyou are the one making decisions for someone else, or you are older and can\nmake your own decisions, it is easy to let home care and regular dental visits\ndecrease as time goes on. Dental health needs to stay at the top of the\npriority list for many reasons. Quality of life and the link between oral\nhealth and systemic health are two big ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Older\npatients will often say, \u201cI don\u2019t need to fix that. How much longer do I really\nhave to live?\u201d And every time I respond the same way, \u201cIf you told me that you\nknew you weren\u2019t going to be around next year I\u2019d say I would agree with\nyou\u2026..but you\u2019ve been saying the same thing for 15 years.\u201d It\u2019s worse when the\npatients lose key teeth when they had the opportunity to keep them for their\nlifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When\nan elderly patient has a multitude of dental issues in which some significant\ndecisions need to be made, I consider the following issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>What\n     is the general health status?<\/li><li>How\n     old is the patient?<\/li><li>What\n     is the general prognosis medically?<\/li><li>Has\n     the patient ever worn anything removable in their mouth?<\/li><li>What\n     is the minimal amount of dentistry that can be done that will not alter\n     the patient\u2019s quality of life?<\/li><li>What\n     are other treatment options to maintain or improve the patient\u2019s quality\n     of life?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ngeneral health status of the patient plays a big role in deciding how to\napproach a patient\u2019s dental care. People who have medical problems that are\nwell controlled are usually okay to receive general dental care. If a person is\nin good physical and mental shape, it is hard to use age as a determining\nfactor for not maintaining good dental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most\nimportant factor which I believe needs to be considered is about quality of\nlife. Studies have shown that loss of teeth results in a loss in quality of\nlife. Some people with dentures have told me that they can eat anything. Others\nwould pay anything to have their teeth back. The point is the enjoyment of\neating. There is no one who could argue that eating with false teeth is as\nenjoyable as eating with real teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The worst\nthing you could do to a 70+ year old person (or for that matter anyone, but the\nolder you get the worse it is) is to remove teeth and make them wear something\nremovable in their mouth. Dentures can be very difficult to adjust to, and it\nis even harder when you are older. The problems with dentures not staying in,\nthe patient not wanting to wear them, and impacting a patient\u2019s nutritional\nintake are all issues that are much more difficult for the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best\nway to avoid having to deal with major issues as you get older is to make sure\nyou take care of your teeth while you\u2019re younger. If someone you love ends up\nin a nursing facility, one of the most important things you could do for them\nis to make sure they get proper dental care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. St. Clair maintains\na private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to health-centered\nfamily dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to see written about\nor questions you have please email them to him at <a href=\"mailto:jpstclair@stclairdmd.com\">jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\">www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Golden Years are much more \u201cgolden\u201d if your teeth are in good shape. One of the most difficult areas I have had to address in my time as a dentist are issues concerning aging patients, specifically those who require assisted or nursing care. Whether you are the one making decisions for someone else, or you are older and can make your own decisions, it is easy to let home care and regular dental visits [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1026,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}