Through biological, functional and psychosocial pathways that include inflammation, malnutrition and social isolation, oral health and disease contributes to systemic aging and frailty. Building on the concept of oral frailty, here we argue that validated oral health indicators — which are widely captured in aging surveys — should be integrated into multidimensional frailty frameworks to improve prediction, early intervention and holistic care for older adults.
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Acknowledgements
V.D. and V.S. were supported by co-funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU, in the context of The National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Investment Partenariato Esteso PE8 “Conseguenze e sfide dell’invecchiamento”, Project Age-It (Ageing Well in an Ageing Society). F.P. was supported by the project “Development of an ensemble learning-based, multi-dimensional sensory impairment score to predict cognitive impairment in an elderly cohort of Southern Italy” funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU – NRRP M6C2 – Investment 2.1 Enhancement and Strengthening of NHS biomedical research (Grant Agreement PNRR-MAD-2022-12376656).
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V.D. contributed to conception, drafted and critically revised the manuscript; F.L. drafted and critically revised the manuscript; V.S. drafted and critically revised the manuscript; F.P. contributed to conception, drafted and critically revised the manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions.
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Nature Aging thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Dibello, V., Lobbezoo, F., Solfrizzi, V. et al. Embedding oral health indicators into multidimensional frailty models. Nat Aging 5, 2359–2362 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00993-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00993-0
