Old age in health and disease. Lessons from the oral cavity.

It is not clear if aging distinctions can be made at the level of an organ or organism. The purpose of this study was to determine if a general definition of systemic aging, primary aging (influence of the passage of time), versus secondary aging (influence of extrinsic factors), can be used to discriminate the functional status of an individual organ system, the oral cavity. Thirty healthy, nonmedicated subjects (that is, those who exhibit primary aging) and 42 persons being treated for medical problems and taking prescription medications (that is, those who exhibit secondary aging), aged 75 to 96 years, from the oral physiology component of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging were evaluated. A standardized examination assessed gingival, periodontal, dental, and oral mucosal tissues. There were few substantive differences in oral health and function between primary and secondary aging subjects. Thus use of broad definitions of aging in an organism did not lead to meaningful predictions of the health or function of an individual organ system. Furthermore, the similarity in the oral condition between both groups studied here suggests substantial resiliency of the oral cavity during aging.