Promoting Healthy Aging in the Dental Setting

By Rosemary DeRosa Hays, RDH, MS, and Victoria H. Raveis, PhD

Dental hygienists are recognized as health promotion and disease prevention specialists, partly due to the specialized education and training they receive as students. This education is expanded upon with clinical experience in the workforce. Dental hygienists are highly skilled members of the dental team. They are well-positioned to act as portals to interdisciplinary healthcare referrals when indicated. This provides the dental hygiene clinician with the opportunity to provide preventive, supportive, patient-centered healthcare. In particular, as the United States population continues to age, dental hygienists may be able to promote active and healthy aging. As such, the dental hygiene profession may want to expand its scope of practice to include assessments for the promotion of active and healthy aging.

* References can be found in the original article via the link below.
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