With age comes more wisdom, perspective, and better judgment, but it might also bring more dental health issues. A recent study showed that two-thirds of American adults aged 65 and older suffer from chronic periodontitis, which can lead to other problems like tooth loss.1 While there might be more risk of some dental health issues, dental plans for seniors can help protect your teeth in the later stages of your life.
Let’s walk through some of the more common dental health challenges that seniors might need to address, and provide some ways to help you mitigate them.
1. Gum disease
Keeping gums healthy can be a problem for many seniors, and gum disease could lead to more serious conditions over time. Gum disease can take the milder form of gingivitis or the more advanced form of periodontitis. Both conditions could lead to expensive treatments, so taking care of your teeth before your condition worsens could save you a lot of pain and a lot of money.
2. Tooth decay
As you get older, your teeth become more susceptible to decay if you don’t take care of them properly. As teeth decay, you may need to get fillings or crowns to keep them in your mouth comfortably. If you don’t treat them as they decay, you could wind up losing your teeth altogether.
3. Tooth loss
You can lose your teeth for a variety of reasons, whether it’s due to too much gum disease, too much tooth decay, or an incident where they got knocked loose. Typically, you may lose your teeth if you’re not keeping up with preventative treatment that keeps them healthy, or you don’t check conditions like gum disease or tooth decay before it’s too late to keep them in your mouth.
When you lose your teeth, replacing them with implants or dentures can be expensive. To keep your teeth in your mouth, you’ll want to take the necessary measures to keep them healthy, like brushing and flossing regularly and making regular trips to the dentist.
4. Oral cancer
Not taking care of your mouth can increase your risk of oral cancer, and oral cancer rates among seniors are higher than oral cancer rates among younger people.2 Oral cancer is not only life-threatening, but it can also cause you to lose more of your teeth. Taking care of your teeth, regularly visiting the dentist, and not smoking are some of the ways that you could potentially limit your chances of getting oral cancer, or at least monitor your mouth regularly for irregularities.
Prevention
There are different ways to prevent dental challenges in your later years, but they all start with taking care of your teeth. Some of the steps you might consider taking to prevent dental problems include going to the dentist, brushing your teeth and flossing regularly, and following your dental care provider’s instructions for maintaining a healthy mouth.
Insurance coverage
It’s much easier to get the support and guidance you need to prevent dental health issues when you have insurance to cover your bills. For some, treatment can become inaccessible because of high out-of-pocket costs, so quality insurance is one way for seniors to protect their teeth. Seniors may want to look for dental insurance with periodontal coverage and coverage for other conditions that may be more prevalent for older people.
Having insurance allows you to go to the dentist more regularly, which can help catch some conditions before they worsen and cost you more down the road. Plus, when you do need to have a more significant operation, you have increased coverage to maintain your smile and keep your teeth healthy.
The bottom line
Getting older means that you might be at a higher risk for certain dental health conditions. Some of them might be more easily treatable, like gum disease and tooth decay, while others, like tooth loss or oral cancer, could end up costing you significant amounts for treatment.
That said, there are ways to take care of your teeth that could help prevent some of the more severe dental health challenges. Regularly visiting the dentist, following a daily dental routine prescribed by your dentist, and getting the treatment you need when you need it are all ways that you can increase your odds of avoiding serious dental conditions. Getting quality dental insurance makes maintaining your teeth more affordable, so speak with a dental insurance agent today to see what plan could work for you.
Sources:
1 National Library of Medicine – Periodontitis Prevalence in Adults > 65 Age, in the USA. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8223257/. Accessed September 4, 2025.
2 National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research – Oral Cancer Incidence (New Cases) b Age, Race, and Sex. https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/research/data-statistics/oral-cancer/incidence. Accessed September 4, 2025.
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