Poudel et al. BMC Geriatrics (2024) 24:33 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-023-04613-7 RESEARCH Open Access © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecom- mons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. BMC Geriatrics Oral health and healthy ageing: a scoping review Prakash Poudel 1,2,3 , Grish Paudel 4,5 , Reecha Acharya 2 , Ajesh George 2,3,6,7* , Wenche S. Borgnakke 8,9 and Lal B. Rawal 4,5,10 Abstract Background Good oral health is an important part of healthy ageing, yet there is limited understanding regard- ing the status of oral health care for older people globally. This study reviewed evidence (policies, programs, and inter- ventions) regarding oral health care for older people. Methods A systematic search of six databases for published and grey literature in the English language by the end of April 2022 was undertaken utilising Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review framework. Results The findings from oral health policy documents (n = 17) indicated a lack of priorities in national health policies regarding oral health care for older people. The most common oral health interventions reported in the pub- lished studies (n = 62) included educational sessions and practical demonstrations on oral care for older adults, nurses, and care providers. Other interventions included exercises of facial muscles and the tongue, massage of salivary glands, and application of chemical agents, such as topical fluoride. Conclusion There is currently a gap in information and research around effective oral health care treatments and programs in geriatric dental care. Efforts must be invested in developing guidelines to assist both dental and medical healthcare professionals in integrating good oral health as part of healthy ageing. Further research is war- ranted in assessing the effectiveness of interventions in improving the oral health status of the elderly and informing approaches to assist the integration of oral health into geriatric care. Keywords Aged, Health policy, Dental care for aged, Patient care team, Integrated health care systems, Mastication, Health status *Correspondence: Ajesh George A.George@westernsydney.edu.au 1 Office of Research and Education, Canberra Health Services, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government, Garran, ACT 2606, Australia 2 Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, Australia 3 Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Liverpool, Australia 4 School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, Central Queensland University, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia 5 Appleton Institute, Physical Activity Research Group, Central Queensland University, QLD, Rockhampton 4702, Australia 6 School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia 7 School of Nursing, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia 8 Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI, USA 9 Department of Periodontics and Preventive Dentistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 10 Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW 2751, Australia