Health care education in the treatment of elderly in dentistry : A view from older patients

Sammanfattning: The elderly population is increasing in Sweden and they have a higher risk of suffering of poorer dental health. Dental professionals must be aware of this situation and aware that this group of people needs daily special dental treatment to obtain better oral health.   The Purposes of this study is to investigate what elderly patients think about dental professional’s pedagogical abilities for treating elderly individuals in dental care.   The methodology of this study was a qualitative research approach with qualitative interviews to examine the older patients' perceptions about pedagogical knowledge of dental care providers. The analysis of the empirical data was performed based on five themes. The first theme is the understanding of elderly patients in dental care. The four remaining themes are: knowledge, competence and experience, communication and patient education.   Results: Dental knowledge is within health care and pedagogical education, therefore dentistry professionals must know and develop several disciplines in the interdisciplinary field of knowledge between oral care, education and organization. This study has shown that older people perceive the existence of pedagogic failure in the treatment of elderly patients in dental care. If older patient perceptions are right it would require more patient education in geriatric dentistry to in turn improve oral health in this group of patients. The study also shows that older patients’ desires to get a better patient education from dental professionals, but older patients also want to be understood individually at the learning and treatment process.