Reducing falls risk in community-dwelling older adults: Dental clinics as portals to fall prevention programs

BACKGROUND: Falls in older adults have severe economic, physical, and psychological consequences. A leading cause of nonfatal injuries in the elderly, falls account for a high percentage of emergency medical service and hospital admissions for trauma.

PURPOSE: Expanding the reach of evidence-based fall prevention programs could substantially reduce the incidence and healthcare care costs of fall-related injury. Fall prevention programs typically target older adults who sustained an injury. However, community-dwelling elderly, who have not experienced a serious fall, but are at risk, could benefit from earlier implementation of a fall prevention program.

RESULTS:  New York University College of Dentistry’s low cost dental clinic provides comprehensive oral health care to multi-ethnic, economically constrained, community residents. In the approximately 300,000 annual patient visits, about 17% of the 96,000 unique patients treated at the clinic were 65 and older. In a pilot initiative to expand fall prevention outreach efforts, during the dental intake process we are obtaining a falls history and associated risk factors from patients 65 and older. The data collected support the utility of this outreach effort.

CONCLUSIONS: As more adults see their dentist than visit a physician in a given year, dental clinics, a safety net site for the delivery of oral health care to the elderly, are ideally situated to take an active role in injury prevention efforts. Dental clinics have established linkages and referral patterns across systems of care and disciplines that can facilitate delivery of preventive services prior to an injury-sustaining event, delaying or preventing unintentional injuries.