Aging can affect your oral health in many ways, making it harder for you to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Our Long Island dentist has some dental tips for seniors, which will help you battle (or prevent) some of the common oral issues you might encounter in the future.
1. Seniors: Manage Your Dry Mouth
Though dry mouth isn’t specifically caused by your age, a lack of saliva production is a common side effect of taking medications, and since most seniors take several pills each day, they will also experience dry mouth.
In addition to the lack of oral moisture being uncomfortable, dry mouth causes plaque to stick to teeth which in turn produces cavities much quicker than normal.
Luckily there are many dry mouth products available over the counter to help battle this irritating condition. Mouth rinses, lozenges, and oral sprays will help to keep your mouth lubricated. Sipping on water helps too!
2. The Importance of Fluoride for Seniors
Fluoride strengthens your teeth and helps to prevent cavities. Be sure to use a fluoride-containing toothpaste and mouth rinse as part of your oral care routine. Our Long Island dentist has prescription-strength fluoride products and treatments that can help reverse enamel demineralization to reinforce the integrity of your teeth.
3. Avoid Senior Tooth Loss
The biting force of your jaw doesn’t change when you lose teeth. The teeth that are left have to work harder to support the load of your chewing pressure. Doing so puts a lot of stress on your mouth, which can cause remaining teeth to wear, break, and/or loosen. If one of your teeth is starting to give out, it’s usually in your best interest to save the natural tooth rather than having it removed and replaced with something else.
4. Restore Missing Teeth (Even if You’re a Senior!)
If you already have missing teeth, a whole mouth reconstruction with implants, dentures, partials, or bridges can bring your back to full function again!
5. Minimize Digestive Issues in Seniors
Since our mouth is where we start to break down food, it’s important to have a healthy set of teeth to aid in good digestion. If you’re missing a lot of teeth, or “bad teeth” make it painful to chew, you may find that you’re consuming a lot of unhealthy, softer, processed foods. Doing so reduces your vitamin intake and nutritional absorption. Being able to chew is an important part of a balanced, healthy diet so do what you can to avoid losing teeth, restoring the ones that you have, and replacing any that are already missing.
6. Visit Your Dentist Regularly for Senior Check-ups
Visiting our Suffolk County dentists regularly throughout the year will help to keep your mouth healthy. We recommend that you reserve a cleaning every six months. Some seniors need visits a little more frequently, such as every 3-4 months. During these visits, we’ll thoroughly examine all of your teeth and take x-rays as needed, to evaluate deeper areas of your smile.
The multi-specialty general dentists of Sachem Dental Group have been serving Suffolk County for over 35 years. We look forward to caring for you as well. Give us a call today to schedule.
