Social demand for oral surgery in third age patients and its association with systemic pathologies.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the frequency of systemic pathologies in patients aged 65 years or more, who require oral care and possibly oral surgery.

STUDY DESIGN: We carried out a cross-sectional descriptive study reviewing 3,388 medical histories for patients from the Department of Medicine and Oral Surgery of the School of Dentistry at the Complutense University of Madrid, who had requested surgical treatment. Those selected were at least 65 years of age or more, and were grouped according to their medical histories into categories of pathologies, which include: systemic, cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, endocrine-metabolic, genitourinary, osteoarticular, nervous system and the sensory organs.

RESULTS: Patients over the age of 65 most commonly present cardiovascular and digestive pathologies, which represent values of 30.8% and 13.75%, respectively. The rest of the systemic pathologies analyzed were categorized according to frequency, as follows: endocrino-metabolic pathologies 6.66%, respiratory pathologies 6.25%, genitourinary pathologies 3.75%, osteoarticular pathologies 2.91%, and pathologies of the nervous system and sensory organs 2.08%.

CONCLUSIONS: The demand for surgical treatments by third age patients was relatively low, representing 2.18%. However, the presence of systemic pathologies was constant, and therefore, the anamnesis and patient medical history are fundamental for any surgical treatment.