carer info

CARER ADVICE

Older people are more prone to tooth decay, as they usually have a dry mouth often due to medication. Gum recession exposes the root dentine further, which is a softer layer of tooth structure which can be sensitive, and is more prone to tooth decay.
Keep your mouth regularly moistened with water.

About six years ago I tried to persuade the Dental Corporate I finished my career with to make a series to help our patients who may be carers, as well as the thousands of employees they had in over 250 care homes.
They are in the business of health, and clearly they did not think it in their financial interests. This was released in August 2023. Future Learn are a brilliant resource, the format is excellent and easy to follow at your pace with engagement and at times on line support. This will be the go to resource for anyone working in the care home environment.

Click on the image for advice on looking after dentures, It is from the KOHC website. This is a useful resource for care homes to educate their staff on oral health, as statistics show many pneumonias are related to poor oral hygiene. And the statistic is early death.

This is a good resource for those living with Dementia, it's often difficult to get maintain good oral hygiene.
While few forget their ability to clean their teeth, they may not remember the toothpaste or the timing, nor like it being imposed.

If possible cleaning at the same time and copying or "mirroring" often can help.

This is a recent website initiative in Wales.
Click on the picture to take you to the resource.

This is the main NHS resource.
It also has been updated recently, and there are direct video links on the next page.
Click on the picture to get access to the full site and course with CPD

This is a specialist group of dentists who have limited resources and are keen to lease with care homes as well as hospitals. Check out their downloadable resources.

Electric toothbrushes have significantly improved in recent years. Your average person who regularly uses an electric toothbrush has less treatment than if they used a manual brush. For how to use this one correctly click on the image.
1. Use a rechargeable brush. This brand has best reviews and is the lowest entry level brush.
2. Only use the smaller round toothbrush heads (bigger heads ones miss areas), and with two minutes you have plenty of time to clean everywhere.
3. An extra smaller interspace toothbrush head is helpful if gum recession has occurred.
4. The detachable toothbrush heads are colour banded for personalisation.

There are some other new devices available.
It has a small reservoir where you place mouthwash, and you position it at the join between the teeth at gum level, and it squirts the mouthwash between the teeth.
It is not as good as using an interspace toothbrush, but compliance may be better.

To clean dentures use a specialist dental brush as shown in the videos.
This type of cleaner is a great help when used with some tablets. With a few weeks of overnight cleaning, the heavy build-up of calculus that the hygienist previously spent time removing from your natural teeth, will gradually be removed.
They are more readily available.
Click on the image to order on line.

To monitor yourself download the teeth4life App from the App Store
Visit the teeth4life YouTube channel for newer and older video content.
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