Dental Care for Older Veterans and the VA's Leadership Roles in Dental Geriatrics.

Dental care has been a component of services the nation has made available to its veterans for nearly a century. The demographics of VA's patients have led VA dentistry towards a heightened focus on and contributions towards improved oral health care of older and medically compromised adults. VA Dental Services treat adults 65 and older at twice the estimated rate of private dental practitioners. This patient population has also made VA dentistry an ideal setting for educating dental practitioners to treat aged and medically compromised patients, and a prolific contributor to the body of research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]