Geriatric dentistry: an analysis of the interest of the scientific community in the study of the relationship between oral anatomic structures and the aging process

Abstract

The decline of the fertility and mortality in the world had increased the number of elderly people, and then the studies about aging became very pertinent. So, life´s quality became a very important subject to discuss, in public health, because it can be associated with the way of the aged people live. Sciences Health can make life´s quality better and be favorable to mental, social and physical equilibration. Oral health is also important. This study shows a review of the publications about aging and mouth structures, found in PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/). Method: The authors searched for the scientific publications in anatomic structures: tooth, gingival, tongue, cheek, palate, lips, salivary glands and mouth. Results: It was found 190921 publications about aging, but only 2.88% about aging and oral structures. The mouth (49.82%), the tooth (20.041%) and the salivary glands (10.39%) were the most cited in the publications about oral structures. Conclusion: The analysis of the results, using the defined criterions, permits to suggest that the mouth is the oral structure with the high number of publications when the publications in oral structure and aging were investigated. The development of geriatric and gerontology certainly will increase the research and the studies about aging and the modifications in oral cavity, which could cause problems in the organism of the elderly people.