Dental caries in older adults. Current status and management.

Despite encouraging reports of decreasing caries prevalence in children and young adults, dental decay continues to be the major cause of tooth loss in adults. The risk for both coronal and root surface caries, in their primary and secondary forms, increases with advancing age. With recent trends of increasing retention of the natural dentition over a longer period of time, and increasing utilization of dental care services by older adults, the number of restorative procedures performed by dental practitioners is anticipated to increase. Keeping retained teeth healthy in advancing age is a challenge and depends to a large extent on the dentist's ability to develop and implement a preventive-restorative protocol that fits the functional ability and risk status of the individual patient.