Proposal for Precision Implant Treatment in Older Patients

Abstract

It has long been discussed how dental therapies including implant treatment should be performed in older patients in Japan. However, definitive treatment guidelines and position papers have not been published due to the lack of clinical evidence for older patients. An appropriate dental implant treatment that resolves several problems due to aging of patients is required. However, which problems play an important role in such treatment remains unknown, since older people have many types of problems such as multiple diseases, polypharmacy, nutrition, age, cognitive function, frailty, sarcopenia, locomotive syndrome and oral frailty. Hence, dentists cannot perform dental implant treatment in older patients based on scientific evidence.

The aim of this study was to clarify the Japanese population, definition of older people, average lifetime and healthy lifespan, frailty, sarcopenia, locomotive syndrome, cognitive function and nutrition of older people, relationship between oral frailty and dental treatment, and useful and easy methods for evaluating risk factors regarding older people, in order to propose suitable dental implant treatment in older patients. This study may contribute to the establishment of clinical guidelines for dental implant treatment in older patients, although we cannot show definitive treatment strategies for older patients.