Oral health, taste, and olfaction

Oral health, taste, and smell contribute greatly to quality of life in older adults. Oral health can enhance or hinder a person's ability to sustain a satisfying diet, participate in interpersonal relationships, or maintain a positive self-image. Taste and smell enhance digestion, confer the ability to discriminate among foods, and enhance pleasure derived from nutritional intake. Oral health problems may lead to chronic pain and discomfort as well as alterations in diet. Changes in oral health, taste, and smell are not inevitable consequences of aging but are rather a result of the cumulative effects of lifestyle, environmental factors, medication use, and disease.