Abstract
As the worldwide population ages, a challenge for oral health-care professionals is how to assess and manage oral conditions in older adults. During previous chapters of this book, we have seen that age-related changes in oral health justify the need for an individualized approach to the management of older adults seeking dental care. However, even among older adults, the extreme variability of the aging process demands that oral health-care professionals recognize how these differences impact oral health care. The concept of frailty captures this variability. We argue in this chapter that identifying frailty is an important consideration for oral health-care professionals who regularly evaluate and treat older adults in their practices. Frailty represents a better marker of biological aging than the sole reliance on chronological age. The purpose of this chapter is to define the two major conceptualizations of frailty and its possible etiologies. We will also present data on how frailty presents in diverse care settings. A discussion on the bidirectional relationship between frailty and oral health will illustrate areas for potential oral health interventions. We will introduce the new concept of oral frailty and its association with physical frailty and discuss approaches for the recognition of frailty by oral health-care professionals. The chapter will conclude with practical management strategies and future directions for research into the role of frailty in oral health.