Should Oral Frailty Become a Standard Component of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment?

Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) has become central to the management of older adults across acute care, rehabilitation, and long-term care settings. Despite increasing recognition of nutrition, frailty, and functional status, systematic evaluation of oral function remains conspicuously absent. Although some CGA instruments include items on chewing, swallowing, or denture use, they rarely capture the subtle but progressive loss of oral motor skills that defines oral frailty. The focus in nursing homes often remains on mucosal health and denture hygiene, overlooking a potentially modifiable driver of systemic decline.