As a person gets towards retirement age, what needs to change about their dental care? How is retirement age dentistry different?

The number one concern with retirement age dentistry is that when people get closer to retirement, they tend to be on more medications. These medications can cause more dental problems. Issues such as dry mouth, and other side-effects that can be problematic if they are not addressed. People may have a time where there is a change in dental insurance and as a result, they may not seek care. That mixed with possible changes with medication can be very, very challenging financially if they don’t realize that problems are occurring.

That usually tends to be the biggest concern as people get closer to retirement age. Our bodies just aren’t what they used to be, and there tends to be more problems. The best thing to do is to make sure that you work on prevention.

What are some common medications that can cause issues?

Blood pressure medications, pain medication, and antihistamines (allergy medications) can cause a lot of dry mouth. Medications that prevent vomiting can also cause an extremely dry mouth. There are quite a few different categories of medications that can cause severe dry mouth. Antidepressants are one big group. Antibiotics on the other hand, do not tend to be a problem. It’s really the dry mouth that causes the issues, not the actual medication.