Geriatric dentistry is concerned with the oral health of elderly persons, who usually have significant medical problems and are taking multiple medications. In addition, they may have psychological and socioeconomic problems that require sophisticated dental management. A basic premise of geriatric dentistry is that elderly people often experience symptoms of dental decay and gingival (gum) disorders that differ from symptoms experienced by younger people. Dental treatment for the elderly is therefore geared to any physical and mental limitations they may have.

Poor oral health in the elderly can lead to loss of appetite, malnutrition, metabolic disorders, and even, in cases of facial disfigurement, the onset of depression. Periodontal disease has been linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other illnesses. With the number of elderly persons of advanced age (85 years or older) with mental disorders such as Alzheimer disease reaching epidemic proportions, dental management of affected individuals has become a major challenge in clinical dental practice. The elderly often take many medications, which have adverse side effects such as dry mouth, a major cause of dental decay. The effects of aging result in changes in lip posture, chewing efficiency, and ability to swallow and taste and in an increase in diseases of the hard and soft tissues of the mouth.

Although the majority of the elderly retain their natural teeth, dental decay, periodontal disease, and loss of teeth in individuals over the age of 65 have reached significant proportions. This backlog of oral disorders demands education, research, and advanced clinical training in geriatric dentistry.

Other disciplines

There are several other disciplines in dentistry that, although not true specialties or subspecialties, are nevertheless the principal field of expertise of various dentists, who devote all or a major portion of their practice to these fields. Among them are oral medicine and forensic dentistry.

Oral medicine, or stomatology, treats the variety of diseases that affect both the skin and the oral mucous membranes. Some of these diseases, such as pemphigus vulgaris, can develop their first manifestations in the mouth and can be life-threatening. Oral cancer also has a high mortality rate, partly because it grows in such close proximity to so many vital structures and readily involves them. With all such diseases of the oral cavity, removal of a portion of the lesion for examination under the microscope (biopsy) by an oral pathologist is an essential procedure, and many other laboratory procedures are often also required for the diagnosis of oral mucosal diseases.

Forensic dentistry is the study and practice of aspects of dentistry that are relevant to legal problems. It is a specialty practiced by few and is not usually part of dental education. Forensic dentistry is, however, of considerable legal importance for several reasons, one of the most important of which is the fact that the teeth are the structures of the body most resistant to fire or putrefaction. Moreover, the arrangement of the teeth or any restoration in them is virtually or completely unique to any given individual and, if dental records can be found, may enable identification with certainty similar to that provided by fingerprinting. For example, the identification of human remains after aircraft accidents can often be made only by this means. Minor irregularities of the teeth can also be reproduced in bite marks, which enables a suspect to be identified if he or she has bitten another person.

Predental programs

In a majority of countries in the world, undergraduate training in dentistry is available. Many require predental training prior to acceptance into a school of dentistry. The predental training is in addition to primary and secondary education, which usually takes from 10 to 12 years. The required number of years in predental education varies from one to seven (a number of European countries require from five to seven years of medical education before entering dentistry). Predental course training usually includes such studies as biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Certain faculties of dentistry in Canada and the United States require a bachelor’s degree in arts or science as a prerequisite for admission into a dental faculty.

Dental school and training

After predental courses, training consists of four years in a faculty of dentistry to qualify as a doctor of dental surgery (D.D.S.) or doctor of dental medicine (D.M.D.), both degrees being equivalent. The program of studies during the four-year course includes the following biological sciences: human anatomy, biochemistry, bacteriology, histology, pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, and physiology, upon which the succeeding studies of the theory and techniques of dental practice are based. Studies required with respect to dental practice include restorative dentistry, prosthetics, orthodontics, surgery, preventive dentistry, medicine, dental public health, pedodontics, periodontics, radiology, clinical practice, and anesthesia.