For carers · Specific care
Specific care
Practical help for the situations carers meet most — limited dexterity, dementia, and dry mouth. Each has a short video to watch alongside the advice.
28%
Only about a quarter of care homes have a trained oral-health champion.
The Care Quality Commission encourages care homes to appoint oral-health champions, but most still don’t have one. Trained dental nurses could support those champions — what’s missing is integrated funding to make it viable.
Where we are
Care-home dental help
An overview of the help that trained dental professionals can bring into a care home — and why regular, preventive support makes such a difference to residents’ comfort and health.
Filmed a few years ago, but the need it describes is exactly the same today.
Watch: care-home dental help
When dexterity is limited
Cleaning teeth for someone else
Nothing beats a toothbrush for removing plaque — but using one in another person’s mouth takes a little technique. This shows how to position yourself and the brush, and how to prepare the area so the resident stays comfortable and relatively dry.
Watch: assisted cleaning — also on the teeth4life app
Dementia
Caring for someone living with dementia
All of us in health care can do more to communicate well with older people — especially those living with dementia. Here are some practical tips for carers, particularly while the person is still in a home environment.
Watch: communicating with someone living with dementia
Dry mouth
Dry mouth and root decay
A dry mouth can have real health consequences. As we age, saliva flows less and its mineral content changes, leaving people more prone to decay at the roots of the teeth.
This is useful for everyone, but especially for anyone on medication or undergoing treatments — such as cancer therapy — that can make the mouth drier and more uncomfortable.
Watch: oral health during cancer treatment