My mom lost almost all her teeth during Covid. She is 95, confined to a wheelchair and has probably 8 teeth left.
I don’t know if we could even get her into a dental surgeons chair but if we did she would need to have the rest of her teeth pulled and the get fitted for dentures.
She is so embarrassed about her current semi-toothless smile (poor Mom).
I worry that she could wind up in a worse place if she is toothless and finds dentures uncomfortable. Kinda between a rock and a hard place. Advice?
Getting used to a top denture is VERY difficult; it takes 6 weeks of a LOT of pain and constant visits to the dentist so he can file down the plastic on the denture (where it rubs on the gums) for a better fit. Where it rubs, it creates sores that are killer. So it's very very hard to eat anything but pudding and yogurt for 6 weeks.
If she needs both and upper and a lower denture, that's like a true nightmare b/c the bottom denture moves around a lot.
Even the top denture never fits quite right. So it's a constant battle to find the right amount of denture cream that will work to keep the damn thing in place. Too little and it falls out. Too much and it's seeping down the back of your throat and making a mess. Powder doesn't create enough of a cushion. Powder AND cream is best, most of the time, but not for everyone.
Needless to say, dentures are a true nightmare to get used to for an average person, never mind a 95 y/o woman who may have cognizance issues, who may lose them, break them, and God knows what else. Just the trips to the dentist's office for fittings ALONE would be enough of a reason to nix the entire idea. My mother only has a few teeth left in her mouth, and she is VERY vain at 94, but there is no way we're doing ANY unnecessary dental work in her mouth these days. The last fiasco was the mobile dentist coming into her Memory Care to do a 'surgical extraction' of a WISDOM TOOTH (I kid you not) and it cost $1000 after it was all said & done! Just today she again told me how she lost a 'little tiny baby tooth' while she was eating, meaning she lost a PIECE of the remaining molar in her mouth, and I said 'gee that's unfortunate mom.' Until & unless she's in pain and complaining, I will not be calling the mobile dentist back again.
Leave your mom alone with her 8 teeth and encourage her to get used to eating soft foods, that's my recommendation. I wouldn't wish a denture on my worst enemy!
Good luck!
Gosh, this is hard!
I couldn't take my mother to a dentist. She is dual incontinent and taking her anywhere would cause confusion. I found a mobile dentist! Great...not. her Delta dental doesn't cover mobile dentist. I was told most dental insurance doesn't. I asked them to check her tooth and if needed antibiotics asap. She had 3 abscess. They came back with a *Dental plan* to remove all of her teeth and fit her for dentures for 15,000.
I said no, remove the abscessed teeth and make sure she had antibiotics and anything she may need for pain. She could never have implants because her bone is like swiss cheese.
I can't imagine putting an elderly person through the pain and then months of waiting for their mouth to heal before having dentures fitted ☹
Hopefully my story helps you with your decision what ever that may be. I feel for you. This caregiving stuff isn't for sissy's. Xo
Even going to an unfamiliar dentist can be detrimental. MANY years ago, while at their place in FL for the winter, mom went to some dentist down there. No idea what the issue was or why she didn't question anything or get another opinion (she did NOT have dementia back then and usually didn't jump to get things done that were recommended!) They pulled at least FOUR teeth. She often talked about getting implants or something, but never followed through. By the time dementia was starting, she hadn't seen anyone in a while, so I took her to my dentist for a cleaning and exam, right down the road from where she lived then. Between hearing and early dementia, they kept coming to me to ask questions (I was getting work done at the same time.) Turns out she had cavity under one crown - they have to remove the crown, fix the tooth and make a new crown. She couldn't quite get it. Funny thing is when the bill came she was horrified! Never mind that she insisted they just poked around and didn't clean her teeth - I know they did, she would just forget. Her extra insurance provided a very small amount for dental, so in her thinking she's paying a lot of money for nothing! Next time I told the hygienist to take pictures. She tells me I did plenty poking around, she'll know. Nope. The door to the office wasn't even closed when she announced they did nothing!
My dad wore upper and lower dentures since he was in his 30’s with no issues. Then when he lost some weight they didn’t fit as well. This was when he was 97. Like a dummy I held out hope that he would tolerate new ones. But no!! He would not wear them because they hurt and it basically changed his bite enough that he couldn’t get used to them. So he went back to his old ones. Fast forward 2 years, he lost his lower at LTC when they threw it away with his dining tray. And then his upper became very loose from continued weight loss. By then he was 98. So we took him to a specialist to get the upper relined for a better fit. Dad had dementia and was an awful patient! Then once he got back to the NH he ripped out the temporary reline and ruined all that work. After that my sister and I said NO MORE dentures or dental visits.
I can’t speak for how your mom will tolerate it but she is awfully old to try to get used to dentures. It takes many visits for adjustments to get them to where that don’t rub sore spots and for the patient to eventually toughen up the gum tissues like a callous. With dementia, She will have it even harder. Quite likely she will refuse to wear them. They are expensive and I would hate for you to have $3000 bookends like we had with my dad's new dentures.
The dentist who said it would not be an issue has likely never dealt with someone with dementia and the aftermath as well as the stress this will place on you.
oral care is SUPPOSED to be done daily in a facility and hopefully it is done daily at home. Oral care after extracting the teeth she has, open wounds in the mouth will be difficult and painful.
Will she be bothered by the wounds. Will she try picking at her mouth?
She will probably have to have a general or possibly twilight anesthesia and it may take her months to recover from that.
All these factors was a driving force behind my decision to not have dental work done for my husband. Not to mention I could not get my Husband to be compliant with the dentist.
*is your mom actually embarrassed or is she picking up on your feelings?
and another side note if you add up all the posts and comments about dentures that get lost, tossed out, misplaced, stolen both at home and in facilities I wonder if dentures are worth the trouble. As well as properly putting them in and caring for them daily. And they have to be put in daily so they continue to fit correctly
I was able to get her in with her old dentist in a nearby town. He was with her for 10 minutes, ground off a couple edges. Done. He was horrified that this dental mill wanted to put her through oral surgery and dentures.
Mom died a few months later. I’m so glad I didn’t let them put her through that process. She would have spent the last month of her life in misery.
Even at 95, she can benefit from dentures if she doesn't have other issues that would prevent her from sitting in the chair or having dental work done. When you take her for the check up to find out why all the teeth fell out, both of you can discuss with the dentist. A good dentist should be able to fit her well with dentures, but dentist is best person to evaluate.
By the way, my mom is 97 and still has all of her own teeth! Dentists still find that remarkable. Her mom still had all her own teeth at 102! They both always took good care and went to dentists regularly. All my siblings are the same - lots of dental visits over the years.
If the existing teeth are sound, they might not have to go. I see partial dentures of all sorts.
It may be that there really isn't any such species in your state as a dentist who does outreach, home assessments, community or home-based appointments - but if you haven't checked, do check. There are some services we never knew existed until we couldn't go out, and our county's peripatetic dental service was one of the best.
Start with your mother's own dentist, though, and ask. If they don't do this perhaps they'll know who does.
He had the extractions with no problems, and wore a "healing " lower denture for 9 months. He was able to eat meat, chicken, bacon, ribs, without issue. He now has his new top and bottom dentures and is happy with them. The only issue is he gets confused about when to put them in and when to take them out. But since he's confused about night and day anyway, its no big deal.