Discover the new resources aimed at improving oral health care for older adults
FDI launches new resources aimed at dentists, patients and carers to enhance the oral health of older adults and prevent decline in oral function.
As people are living longer, the unavoidable reality of population ageing is affecting our society on a global scale. In fact, the WHO states that by 2030, 1 in 6 people worldwide will be aged 60 years or over. Biological ageing makes older adults susceptible to disease and leads to a decline in the bodily functions needed for daily living.
The FDI Oral Health for an Ageing Population (OHAP) project aims to strengthen the role of the oral health community in achieving healthy longevity. In this spirit, two new resources have been developed to promote oral health for older adults, including a Frailty Guide for dentists and a brochure with oral function exercises for patients and carers.
Explore the new resources aimed at improving oral function for older adults
The FDI Frailty Guide is a WebApp developed to support dentists and dental teams when treating older adults above the age of 65. The platform can be used prior or during consultations and offers a two-step pre-assessment to establish the dependency and oral frailty risk levels of the patient. Dentists and dental teams can use it to provide targeted prevention advice and recommendations for older patients in accordance with OHAP’s dependency level-based and prevention-based approach. A PDF with pre-assessment results and prevention advice can be downloaded and/or received via email. The guide can be used on a desktop, tablet or cell phone and is suitable for in-person and online consultations.
The brochure for patients and carers provides oral function exercises to be performed regularly by older adults to help maintain their oral health and prevent signs of oral function decline.
About Oral Health for an Ageing Population
The OHAP project was launched in 2015 to strengthen the role of the oral health community in achieving healthy longevity. The project pushes for oral health challenges to be addressed in broader disease policies and health promotion strategies for ageing populations. OHAP aims to ensure that people not only live longer lives but healthier ones too, free of oral diseases, to secure their overall health and well-being.
The OHAP project is supported by GC.
FDI Frailty Guide
This WebApp is a guide for dentists and other oral health professionals to receive targeted prevention advice for their older patients (over 65) in accordance with OHAP’s dependency-level-based and prevention-based approach. The FDI Frailty Guide can be used during a consultation with the patient and provides advice as per Dependency-Level and Oral Frailty Risk-Level of the patient.
