Policy Paper. Salud Oral en Personas Mayores: un desafío multidimensional para Chile

In face of an accelerated rate of ageing of the population on a global and local scale, it is fundamental to recognize the fact that this group is particularly susceptible to diverse complications in terms of health. Health is a multidimensional phenomenon encompassing biology, economics, history and social disciplines and concerns.The present document specifically tackles oral health as a part of an all-around concept of health, that is to say, integral health. Pathologies that affect teeth, mucosa, oral tissues and other functional mouth components can affect the course of daily life of older people in different aspects. Oral diseases, although not normally fatal are accumulative, with inequalities tending to widen with age. Among these diseases we find dental caries and periodontitis, which are the main cause of dental loss, whether partial and total. In Chile, according to the “Encuesta Nacional de Salud” (National Health Survey) 2016-2017, a 77,5% of people 65 years old or more, have fewer than 20 teeth; that is to say, they do not have a functional dentition, and 65,8% use a dental prosthesis. According to the same dataset, 61,3% had not seen a dentist in the previous year and 3,1% had never – in their lives – even visited once (Ministerio de Salud de Chile, 2018). A very important aspect to consider in this scenario is gender inequalities. In terms of overall health, women over 60 years old present a morbidity rate of 8,3 percentage points higher than men. In the same line, the prevalence of chronic diseases and acute episodes is higher in the female population, a particular vulnerable group (Cannobbio & Jeri, 2008) Specifically for oral health, considering all ages, the burden of pathologies is higher for women. This difference is accentuated especially in the 45 to 49 age group, in which the specific concentration of edentulism EXECUTIVE SUMMARY POLICY PAPER N°2 / SERIE ENVEJECIMIENTO