As we age we generally don’t face the same kinds of dental problems that children still face. (My parents never had dental fillings after I became old enough to notice such things, but they had had terrible dental problems earlier in life, and each of them had bridges to replace various missing teeth.) We also don’t – as a rule – eat and drink the way children and teenagers do.
As we age, more of our problems are related to receding gums exposing the roots of teeth, and decay occurring beneath the gum line, or older dental fillings wearing (or even falling out) and the resulting cavity being too large to re-fill. That’s why extractions, root canals and implants or crowns are more common among older people – who can still afford to pay for dental treatment.