Ethical reflections on oral health promotion in the older population

Oral pathology is highly prevalent among older adults and negatively impacts both overall well-being and quality of life. A large proportion of this population does not regularly attend preventive dental visits, often perceiving such visits as unnecessary in the absence of pain or symptoms. An intervention study aimed at motivating older adults to attend dental check-ups was found to be ineffective. This raises the question of whether further resources should be invested in this target group to promote oral care given the prediction that oral health promotion campaigns are unlikely to be effective. In this paper, we discuss this dilemma through various ethical-philosophical frameworks, with particular attention to patient autonomy and the Belgian healthcare context.