Dentures

ripscott

How do get your LO to take their dentures out of their mouth? We take his teeth every night when he is getting ready for bed so we can clean them for him. Now he just stares blankly at us and doesn't seem to hear us asking him to give us his teeth. Everything seems to have gone downhill quickly. He's not eating much, hardly drinking, seems to have forgotten how to stand or walk, and is barely talking. He just got out of the hospital after a week stay and is now on hospice. He was so much better before the recent hospital stay. We are regretting going to the hospital but his nurse thought he should get checked out, so we agreed. It is so much harder to take care of him now. Not sure if we like him being on hospice. So far all they want to do is give him pills. The first Lorazapan they told us to give him knocked him out for 9 hours. We have resisted all along giving him a lot of meds that would make him a zombie and it seems that is all the hospice nurses want to do. Anyway I am drifting off my question of how to get dad to give us his teeth. When we aren't able to get them from him before bed, he will often take them out in the middle of the night and we're afraid they will get broken.

SusanB-dil

Hi ripscott - When my grandmother got to the point of your LO, we simply left the dentures out. It was better than any argument or noncompliance issues. It was better to keep them out rather than risk issues with health/mouth-care. Softer foods and she did well with that.

Check with his PCP or his neurologist (if he has one) about the meds hospice is giving him. Was he agitated and needed something to calm? Could they cut back on the dosage? MIL is on 2 meds for agitation. The dosage was smaller at first, and has had to increase a bit since it was first started, but no zombie-effect.

Sorry you are dealing with 'this'.

towhee

Medication should always be appropriate for the symptom or problem, and there should always be a valid and specific reason. I agree with the soft food, at least for a while.