The average age of life of the population has increased and the dental consultations received increasing number of elderly patients. Care dental of these patients is complex and involves a number of adjustments in the management, they are often people with a high burden of medical problems. They are usually patients with chronic diseases and very medicated with oral problems, economic and social different from the rest of the population.

We need to raise awareness and professional health for older change attitudes towards dental care, influenced by the time they have lived and achieve improved quality of life.

The situation oral older adults is special, although the trend is to use less dentures as they are keeping natural teeth longer, we find much of the partial population or totally edentulous, i.e. without teeth, to which should be rehabilitated, not only aesthetic but also and more importantly, the masticatory function .

The pathologies that we frequently find in our consultations are:

• Disease periodontal, which is the involvement of the supporting tissues of the teeth and if untreated leads to its loss. In addition, this periodontal disease worsens other problems such as diabetes and heart, digestive and respiratory diseases.
• Dental caries, which especially affects the roots of the teeth; Erosions, dental abrasions sometimes so great that they destroy the dental pieces, turning them into true knife edges.
• Oral cancer
• Decreased thickness of the mucosa, which makes it more prone to infections, ulceration or pain in these mucous membranes by decreasing estrogen.

Prevention is therefore key to the oral health of older adults and therefore it is necessary for the patient to see consulting your dentist 2 times a year to sanitize your mouth, considering that usually normal decreased ability with age. A monitoring and cleaning appropriate help eliminate microorganisms in the plaque and tartar. It is also necessary to instruct in the daily brushing and the use of dental floss, to avoid oral problems and halitosis or bad breath, so frequent in the elderly.

These periodic reviews also include the prescription and application of drugs such as fluoride, which help prevent cavities and other oral antiseptics to combat periodontal disease.

Finally a regular monitoring by your dentist helps make possible early diagnosis of oral diseases, detecting precancerous or cancerous lesions and early, very easy to treat stadiums. In this regard it is important to know that any ulcer or spot on the mouth that does not go away in 15 days should be examined.

The patients with dentures should have their dentures with adequate and well adapted dimensions, to avoid painful lesions on the gums. These prostheses should be adapted periodically, that is, add the material corresponding to the gradual decrease of the volume of the gums, taking advantage of these adjustments to see if there is infection by candida, a situation that is so frequent in prosthesis wearers.

Finally, note that today we have the advance of technology with implants. Without entering into matter, it is a very broad field, to know that with only 2 implants that fix the prosthesis we can change the quality of life of these people. And with 2 more we can already place a prosthesis without supporting the mucous membranes, avoiding the terrible rubbing. Also know that such interventions are simple to perform and do not usually pose a risk for elderly patients.