At the ADA FDI World Dental Congress held earlier this month in San Francisco, USA, FDI World Dental Federation (FDI) released its latest resources on the treatment and care of patients with partial tooth loss.
Rather than losing all their teeth as they age, more and more dental patients are greeting old age with a number of their teeth still intact. Having more teeth has led to the advent of a relatively new dental patient group: partially dentate patients. These patients have one or more missing teeth, which are either congenitally absent or have been extracted due to disease, trauma or surgery.
FDI has launched a series of tools to offer this patient group a tailored, comprehensive approach to treatment and care. These include the Collaborative Care Continuum: The 3Cs pathway for partially dentate patients white paper, as well as guidelines designed for oral health professionals that support patient-practitioner communication and offer advice to manage patients who are partially dentate.
“Our work is focused on a personalised approach to managing partially dentate patients,” FDI president Dr Kathryn Kell said.
“We know that good patient-practitioner communication is linked not only to increased patient satisfaction, but also with better adherence to treatment.”
