Introduction
Our bodies go through a lot of changes and so does our oral cavity. It faces significant challenges as we grow old. This is associated with numerous factors from systemic conditions to lifestyle habits. Oral mucosa are very delicate tissue making it more susceptible to getting easily infected, oral diseases, and even cancers in the elderly.
Why Does Oral Mucosa Get Impacted With Age?
According to current dental research and the increasing global prevalence of dental diseases, the geriatric or the elderly population groups are at the utmost risk of developing oral mucosal lesions, periodontal disease as well as pre-cancers and oral cancers. This is because there has been a direct implication or link established between the diseases of oral mucosa and age-related decline in oral mucosal health due to the given below factors:
- Underlying systemic conditions.
- Psychological and physiologic impact of aging on oral soft tissues
- Increased predisposing factors for trauma with aging.
- Effect of systemic or oral medications.
- Inability to maintain oral soft tissue health with aging.
- Denture health or prosthetic health.
Now, let us delve into the perspective of what happens to your oral mucosal tissues as an impact of aging. The oral mucosa is the soft tissue covering the lips, the cheeks, your gums or the gingiva, and the palate along with the periodontal supporting or anchoring tissue that connects the tooth to your alveolar bone. It is an integral part of your oral cavity and face, that maintains both form and functionality in human beings.
The oral mucosa tissues further mainly serve as a first line of defense or rather as a barrier that would be protective against carcinogenic agents, harmful free radicals that can circulate in the oral cavity, anaerobic bacterial pathogens, traumatic or systemic induced agents that can be causing the wide spectrum of oral diseases.
Why Is It Important to Be Aware of Dental Follow-Ups?
It is important to note that a number of oral mucosa lesions definitely start to appear with increasing age, though research suggests that in healthy individuals, the incidence of these lesions would usually prove to be harmless. However, in the geriatric population when bodily immunity is naturally lowered or there is an alteration in your metabolic requirements, there is indeed a necessity for instituting not only strict oral hygiene regimens but also the need for professional oral care.
Indeed, current research shows that a growing proportion of individuals may be falling prey to oral cancers or soft tissue tumors of the oral cavity, either due to premalignant or malignant tumors have been left untreated or because of certain cancer-causing risk factors - this incidence however is progressive towards global mortality rates, which means there is a need for dental awareness and the importance of not just oral hygiene in the geriatric or elderly population, but also the need for regular dental follow ups in the elderly.
Oral immunity is directly affected when the cellular immunity of the individual gets lowered with increasing age. Hence regular dental follow-ups and prophylactic regimens or restorative or prosthetic modalities as deemed fit by your dentist can help achieve both the sustenance of oral health, while also preserving the form and function of your oral cavity and jaws, in spite of the physiologic impact of aging.
What Are the Factors That Link Age to Oral Mucosal Lesions and Diseases?
Let us look at the factors that may be affecting oral immunity in the elderly or the geriatric population groups and why they would require dental awareness and perspective into oral health:
- Many oral conditions associated with oral mucosa or oral soft tissues such as commonly bad breath (halitosis), xerostomia (dry mouth), and periodontal diseases can cause oral mucosal lesions commonly with age.
- Risk factors in the elderly whether age-related cognitive decline, stress, underlying systemic conditions, age-related metabolic changes, or disorders of the endocrine system like diabetes and systemic hypertension, hyperthyroidism, or nutritional deficiencies are definitely influence the oral mucosal health
- In many sections of the globe especially amongst the lower socioeconomic groups who may be facing oral issues because of poverty and who may not have access to dental facilities or infrastructure in rural areas, can definitely be prone to oral mucosa lesions and even pre-cancers or cancers (in presence of risk factors).
- Aged patients with deleterious habits such as tobacco smoking and chronic or regular alcoholism can be one of the major initiatives for triggering oral neoplasms or cancers, and hematologic and local infections of the mouth. Amongst the oral mucosal lesions that are associated with the elderly population having detrimental habits, the lesions commonly associated with this age group above 60 are habit-related compared to the non-habit-related lesions. For instance, a whopping 75 percent of oral mucosal lesions found in the elderly are attributed to tobacco smoking (with nicotine being the primary antagonist) followed by smokers' melanosis, frictional keratosis, submucous fibrosis, and smokers' palate. Amongst the non-habit related or induced oral lesions or infections amongst the elderly, aphthous ulcers have been the highest incidence in global case reports followed by the geographic tongue, bacterial, viral, immunologic, and metabolic-induced lesions affecting the oral cavity of the patient.
- In elderly patients who may have an underlying systemic disease or who are in immunocompromised condition, oral mucosal or soft tissue diseases are extremely common due to lowered immunity, possible nutritional deficiencies especially a lack of calcium, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin K, which are necessary for sustaining oral health.
- In elderly patients who may be having prosthetic rehabilitation such as crowns, bridges, dental implants, or dentures, lack of oral hygiene or motivation to sustain dental health can often lead to inflammatory conditions such as denture stomatitis or osteonecrosis of the jaw (in poor oral hygiene).
- With increasing age, there is a direct biological impact on the gingival and periodontal soft tissues of the oral cavity. There can be behavioral as well as immunologic changes initiated by patients' individual stress factors.
- Often when elderly individuals are not dentally aware of the repercussions of untreated dental infections periodontal diseases or oral lesions, the clinical features may be aggravated leading up to a high risk of systemic and cardiovascular infections or diseases and thereby mortality as well.
Conclusion
To conclude thus, several factors play an important role in the physiologic aging associated with poor oral tissue response. Oral mucosal lesions should be managed by the dentist or the maxillofacial surgeon on time and with a proper confirmative diagnosis of the same. This hence necessitates the worldwide need for dental professionals and their active role in aiding the recovery of orally afflicted individuals and the need for dental or oral health care awareness.
