Attitudes and values concerning oral health and utilisation of services among the elderly.

Thus, attitudes to oral health and dental utilisation patterns of older adults show great variation and it seems the level of oral health care an individual will seek and accept will depend on their individual: age and their personal experience with dentists, past and present socio-demographic environment, number of remaining teeth, level of education achieved, expectations of family and/or significant others, level of discomfort experienced either with the dental condition or with past dental care, economic ability to pay for care, level of health or functional dependency, level of cognitive impairment, ability to reach dental services which includes distribution of dentists and geographic isolation, the philosophy of the dentists available to care for the individual.