Question:
I am so fed up with the home my mother is in. She is TOTALLY out of it,so she can't complain if anything is wrong. I noticed about 6 months agothat her teeth looked bad and complained to the nurse's about it. Longstory short, they finally got her checked and her gums are badlyinfected and all her teeth need pulled.I've had to make sure things were done ever since.When she finally got an appt to see a surgeon, he said they would pullher teeth on the 3rd of Aug. I had to call the doctor and the home tomake sure she was on antibotic's at least 2 weeks before the surgery. Ishouldn't have to do that. Plus they had to take her out of the home forthe dentist appt and now they wanted to take her out again 2 times to beapproved for the surgery. I had a FIT on the phone today about why theyhad to take her out twice before the surgery. So suddenly now they cantake her out once. They don't care about the people just all the moneythey can make on them. It just makes me SICK!!The home she is in is just beautiful, they're always spending money tomake it look good, but don't want to have the staff that is reallyneeded there. I would rather the place wasn't so fancy and they had morepeople there taking care of the people.Sometimes I really don't think, they want to cure alzheimers they aremaking to much money on it..

What's your opinions???

Answer: I dunno about where you are, but here, nursing homes don'tcover dental work - its up to the family to schedule dental checks,either with the dentist who visits the facility, or at an outsidedental office - and obviously, any actual work would have to be donein a dental office or hospital.

My MIL stopped wearing her plates about 2 1/2 years before she died,and several of her remaining teeth were broken. However she wasn't inpain, and she would have had to be put under to be examined or treated(there is no way she would have cooperated or understood what wasgoing on) - and the prospect of putting her throught the impacts of ageneral anesthetic made us realize that there really wasn't much point- and that is a choice a lot of families make. The experience for mostof us is that putting someone under has an immediate and oftenpermanent impact on cognition (i.e. it cseems to throw the person fora sudden decline from which they never really recover).

Is there a point to putting your mother through this if she's alreadyat an advanced stage of the illness? What are you hoping to achieve?Even if they had sent her to a dentist 6 months ago, wouldn't theyhave had to put her under to do any work?

Just asking. Having been through this, my personal take on homes isthat if they are keeping your mother clean, comfortable, and as happyas humanly possible, they're doing just about all that can be done forlater stage AD sufferers.