Senior Smiles focuses on dental health

Dental health is of the utmost importance for Sue Ryser.

The Cottonwood Heights resident is especially interested in oral health of seniors. A new campaign she is involved in aims to bring this issue into the public eye.

The Senior Smiles Campaign is a national oral health awareness campaign designed to educate seniors on the importance of good oral health and to raise awareness within the community of the oral health needs of seniors.

"We want to start an awareness of the problem that exists with senior oral health care. Seniors are the fastest growing population. One paper even called it the 'senior tsunami,"' said Ryser, the community outreach chair for the Salt Lake Dental Alliance.

The main focus of the campaign is homebound seniors who aren't able to get around easily to have regular dental checkups. Ryser has been working with Salt Lake County Aging Services to distribute Senior Smiles kits around the valley.

The kits include toothpaste and a toothbrush, toothpaste for sensitive teeth, denture care supplies, floss and a large-print booklet about proper oral health care.

The Alliance of the American Dental Association, developer of the Senior Smiles Campaign, designated Aug. 15, 2006, as Senior Smile Day to kick the campaign off. On that day more than 100 Alliance chapters across the country delivered more than 10,000 Senior Smiles kits containing dental health care products and educational materials to homebound seniors. Locally, the Salt Lake Dental Alliance provided 100 kits to Salt Lake County Aging Services.

Kelli Polcha, alternatives program manager for Salt Lake County Aging Services, said the need for dental health care is great not only for homebound seniors but low income seniors in general.

"Dental health tends to be really poor once they get really frail. It impacts nutrition, which impacts their overall health," she said.

The Senior Smiles Campaign is valuable not only in educating seniors, but also in providing supplies to help seniors on a limited income make it to the end of the month, Polcha said.

Ryser says studies have shown a direct correlation between oral and general health. Educating seniors about oral health can help them avoid health complications from it, she said.

"The median age for the diagnosis of oral cancer is 64, so it's really critical that we pay attention to oral cancer with older adults," she said.

Polcha hopes the campaign can encourage seniors to improve their dental health care habits.

"We can encourage them to start taking better care of their teeth and gums, getting them to floss (and) prevent problems from getting worse," she said. "(We can) use these tools to (help seniors) take care of the teeth they've got. It's great way to re-educate people about good dental hygiene and how important it is."

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E-mail: twalquist@desnews.com