Last updated: August 2026
People often expect dental problems later in life to be a continuation of earlier ones. In practice the pattern shifts. Someone who spent decades with barely a filling can find themselves getting decay at the gumline in their seventies, and the reason usually has nothing to do with how well they brush.
Most of what changes traces back to a small number of causes.
This is the single biggest driver, and it is rarely mentioned when the medication is prescribed.
Reduced saliva is a side effect of a long list of common medications: some blood pressure treatments, antidepressants, antihistamines, diuretics, and medications for bladder conditions among them. Someone taking four or five medications may be getting the effect from several at once.
Saliva is doing more work than it gets credit for. It buffers acid after eating, carries calcium and phosphate that repair early enamel damage before it becomes a cavity, and washes food and bacteria away. Take away a good portion of it and the mouth loses several defences simultaneously. Decay can then appear quickly in someone whose teeth have been stable for forty years.
What helps: sipping water through the day, sugar-free gum to stimulate flow where chewing allows, saliva substitutes from a pharmacy, and a high fluoride toothpaste where your dentist recommends one. What does not help is switching to sugary lozenges or boiled sweets for the dryness, which is a common and understandable move that accelerates the problem. Our dry mouth page covers this further.
Do not stop or change a medication over this. Mention it to your dentist and your GP, because sometimes there is an alternative and sometimes there is not, but the dental risk can be managed either way.
Gums recede over time, and receded gums expose root surface. Root is covered by cementum rather than enamel, and cementum is softer and dissolves at a lower acidity.
The result is decay appearing at the gumline, on surfaces that were protected for most of a lifetime. It often shows up on several teeth at once because the cause is general rather than local. Combined with dry mouth, root decay is the most common new problem in this age group.
It is also easy to miss at home, since it sits low on the tooth and is frequently painless until it is well established.
A denture made ten years ago that has become loose has almost certainly not changed shape. The ridge underneath it has.
Bone that no longer supports tooth roots gradually reduces, so the shape the denture was fitted to keeps altering. A reline rebuilds the fitting surface to match the ridge as it is now, which is often all that is needed and costs considerably less than a new denture.
Loose dentures are worth addressing rather than adapting to. They cause sore spots, they make eating harder, and people quietly narrow their diet to soft foods in response, which has consequences beyond the mouth. Our dentures page covers relines and replacements, and DVA funds a reline every two years and replacement every six for cardholders, set out on our DVA dentist page.
Arthritis, reduced grip strength, tremor or reduced vision all affect how well teeth get cleaned, and none of them have anything to do with willingness.
Adjustments that make a practical difference:
Where someone is being cared for at home or in residential care, mouth care is one of the first things to slip. It is worth asking about specifically, because it is rarely reported as a problem until there is pain.
Six monthly is a habit rather than a rule. Where dry mouth, recession or a history of gum disease is present, problems develop faster and with less warning, and a shorter interval catches them earlier. Some people move to three or four monthly for a period and then back again.
Examinations at this stage also cover soft tissues, not just teeth. Oral cancer risk increases with age, and early changes are usually painless, which is another argument for regular examination rather than symptom-driven visits. Our oral cancer page has more.
Access matters at this age in a way it does not at forty. There is parking on site rather than a walk in from Main Street, and Croydon station is close by on the Lilydale line if a family member is bringing you in from Ringwood East or Mooroolbark. Saturdays are open, which is usually the difference between an appointment happening and being postponed when someone else has to do the driving.
Language is the other one. Several of our dentists speak Mandarin, and some speak Cantonese, which matters more in this age group than any other. Explaining a treatment plan involving medications, staged appointments and consent is hard enough in a first language. If English is a second language acquired later in life, being able to have that conversation properly changes what gets understood and agreed to. Ask when you book and we will arrange the appointment accordingly.
More than one in ten Croydon residents is now aged 75 or over. DVA cardholders are also well represented locally, and DVA covers dental care for eligible veterans with an assessed clinical need, which a good number of cardholders never use.
Bring a current list of medications, including anything started since the last appointment. Mention dryness even if it seems minor. Say if brushing has become harder, and say if a denture has become loose rather than living with it.
Call (03) 9725 8040 or book online. We are on Wicklow Ave with parking on site, and Saturdays suit family members doing the driving. More on our seniors dentistry page.
DVA entitlements described here are drawn from the Department of Veterans' Affairs and were last checked on 9 August 2026. This article is general information, not personal dental or medical advice. Do not change any prescribed medication without speaking to the doctor who prescribed it.