Geriatric oral health issues in India

An overview of the demographics and oral health status of the elderly popul ation of India is presented. India is a vast country with a population of o ne billion people. Of this, people older than 60 years constitute 7.6%, whi ch in actual number is 76 million. There are several factors that affect th e oral health of elderly. The dentist: population ratio is 1:27,000 in urba n areas and 1:300,000 in rural areas, whereas 80% of the elderly population reside in rural India. Forty per cent of the elderly live below the povert y line and 73% are illiterate. Ninety per cent of the elderly have no socia l security and the dependency ratio is 12.26. Incidence of oral cancer, whi ch is considered an old-age disease, is highest in India, 13.5% of all body cancers are oral cancers. Preventive dental care is almost nonexistent to the rural masses and very limited in urban areas. Above all, there is no or ientation of dental graduates towards the special needs of the geriatric po pulation. Recommendations include: the establishment of Continuing Dental E ducation programmes on geriatric oral care; inclusion of a geriatric compon ent in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula; initiation of a diploma, c ertificate and degree courses in geriatric dentistry; research on various a spects of ageing and age-related oral health problems; provision of prevent ive and curative treatment for various oral diseases to the elderly.