How An Oral Function Approach Supports Healthy Aging For All

The unavoidable reality of population ageing is affecting our society on a global scale. Dental and oral health are essential for the lifelong maintenance of quality of life, and research has shown that they contribute to the maintenance and improvement of general health. In this webinar, renowned oral health experts will outline how an oral function-focused approach supports healthy ageing to ensure that people not only live longer lives but healthier ones too. New concepts referred to as oral frailty and oral hypofunction will be explained to highlight the importance of managing oral function in older adults. To connect this complex topic with the dental practice, clinical and community approaches to the prevention of oral function decline in older persons according to the level of dependency of the older patient will also be explored. The presentations are followed by a discussion with the webinar speakers. 

The unavoidable reality of population ageing is affecting our society on a global scale. Biological ageing makes older adults susceptible to disease and leads to a decline in the bodily functions needed for daily living. Dental and oral health are essential for the lifelong maintenance of quality of life (QOL), and research has also shown that they contribute to the maintenance and improvement of general health. In this webinar, renowned oral health experts will outline how an oral function-focused approach supports healthy ageing to ensure that people not only live longer lives but healthier ones too.

In the context of rapid population ageing, oral health has an essential role to play in achieving a healthy ageing society, particularly in terms of noncommunicable diseases and frailty prevention. It is therefore imperative that access to high-quality oral health services is provided to all persons and communities, regardless of socioeconomic status. From this perspective, Prof. Kakuhiro Fukai will lay out an oral function-focused approach for achieving a healthy ageing society in the first presentation of this webinar. Prof. Fukai will also explain the activities of Season II of FDI’s Oral Health for an Ageing Population (OHAP) project.

The second presentation of this webinar by Dr. Hirohiko Hirano will focus on the importance of the management of oral function in the ageing population. With a renewed focus on eating abilities in the ageing population, new concepts referred to as oral frailty and oral hypofunction have been introduced in Japan. Oral frailty highlights the important message that a slight decline in oral functions can easily lead to adverse health outcomes such as sarcopenia and physical frailty and a further decline in oral functions.

Building on these lectures, Prof. Gerry McKenna will elaborate on clinical and community approaches to the prevention of oral function decline in older persons according to the level of dependency in this webinar’s third and last presentation, followed by a discussion with all webinar speakers.

Learning objectives

• To learn about healthy ageing and oral health

• To learn about UHC for older persons

• To gain awareness about the role of oral function in achieving healthy longevity

• To learn about oral function assessment and diagnosis

• To learn about clinical and community approaches to preventing oral function decline

• To learn about OHAP projects