Some senior communities, such as those run by Erickson Retirement Communities, do have dental suites on site or provide "on-call" dentists who visit to provide regular care. And Erickson also offers its residents a supplemental insurance program that includes a dental component.
"There's been increasing literature over the last decade demonstrating that dental care is important among seniors," said Dr. Matt Narrett, executive vice president and chief medical officer at the Catonsville-based company. "It is a fundamental and essential part of good health and wellness."
Recent studies have shown, for example, an association between oral health and overall health, including heart problems, fever, diabetes and pneumonia.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's A section included a garbled word and an incomplete paragraph. It should have read:
About a quarter of adults age 60 and older no longer have their natural teeth, experts say, and many older adults who do keep their teeth suffer from health problems such as pain, cavities, shifting teeth and receding gums, to name a few.
This month, the General Assembly increased state funding in an effort to expand dental care for poor children.
THE SUN REGRETS THE ERROR
And those who are missing several teeth may have trouble chewing, which can lead to poor nutritional choices.
Lemon, who lives at Stadium Place, has restricted her diet to mostly mashed potatoes and soft vegetables, she said, because other foods are too hard to chew.
"That's why I need a set of dentures bad," she said.
Lemon could try to come up with the money for dentures out-of-pocket, but prior dental visits - mostly for extractions - have left her financially strapped, she said.
"When you're on a fixed income and you gotta put out that kind of money, you have to let a bill go and then you have to double up the next month," she said. "It's too much money."
Educating seniors about proper dental care is another important way to help curb the problem, experts say.
Last fall, the ADA and Glaxo-SmithKline Consumer Healthcare launched the Oral Longevity Initiative, a program designed to increase awareness about the need to enhance and preserve the oral health of older Americans.
"People have ideas that teeth are not supposed to last a lifetime," Price said. "Heck, teeth outlive us. After we're gone, our teeth and bones remain behind. Losing teeth is not a normal part of being alive. It's common, but it's not normal."
Greater awareness and more services for seniors might have prevented Lemon from being in the predicament in which she now finds herself. She can admit now that she didn't take great care of her teeth when she was younger.
"I only went to the dentist when I had a toothache," she said.
But Lemon has finally learned how important it is to have good dental care.
"I make my grands and great-grands go and get their check-ups," she said. "Yes, I do."
tanika.white@baltsun.com
