Title: Frail elderly-dental outreach-the future in 3-D

Biography:

Jon Strom practiced in West Vancouver for 42 years after 5 years in Armed Forces. He followed his Patients who moved into Long Term Care Homes. He was puzzled and challenged by the difficulty in caring for their Dental needs in a very restricted setting. He ended up providing Dentistry for ten years and tried to develop protocols for those that couldn’t access his Clinic easily. He was on the Long Term Care Committee for the Vancouver Dental Society and worked to fund a Geriatric Chair at UBC. He took up the study of providing Dental Services to the Frail Elderly who through physical and sensory decline have lost access to Dental Clinic environments. He will describe some new technologies that will enhance effective Dental care in this area.

Abstract

The  Increase in longevity and the looming Geriatric tsunamii of Frail elderly is posing a problem for the provision of good oral health as patients lose access to  the  Dental Office due to reduced mobility. How will the Dental Profession deal with the obvious complications  that and demographic tidal wave  presents in the coming decades.  As there is a revolution in the provision of extended care in the Medical profession so there must be  by the Profession of Dentistry. Here with we will try to prognosticate  where this future Dental Practice modes may provide some solutions. It is difficult to reach out  to Long-Term Care Institutions and homebound Dental patients  with  a good Oral Hygiene program let alone investigate and make reliable surveys of their oral health status with  the present technologies we have. However there are potential  new technologies and systrms which could allow  access  to outpatients by  Dental Personnell from private practice clinics..The use of Android Phones   to transmit images and text  information from remote locations would allow dental  records to be built up and sent  to the  Dental Office  for perusal by Dental Professionals. More significantly the remote use of 3D Dental models might allow the provision of appliances that could enhance oral hygiene as well as treat dental deficiencies.In this presentation we  will review and present  possible scenarios that would allow Dental Offices to   institute outreach  programs that would allow them to monitor their Patients oral status and provide programs to enhance their Oral Health even though actual access to the Dental Office itself is compromised. Better Nutritional programs and outreach programs can be instituted very easily.  This presentation will suggest  what the future of Outreach Dentistry  might look like  and bring   efficiencies and effective protocols to the frail elderly who at present have  difficulty accessing  good Oral hygiene  monitoring or successful methods l of good hygiene practices. The lack of which can be devastating for the frail elderly with Medical complications.