How do I know if my mom really has dementia or are the physicians just pushing her off because she is 87?

Because she has a hard time finding her words, and her speech. She is scheduled for an EEG and a memory test. She just recently started hallucinating, but that comes and goes

I have the same question Nancy has -- did the doctors do any testing?

What are the symptoms that make the doctors think she has dementia?

Hasn't her doctor or A doctor had her evaluated for dementia? The evaluation wasn't anything but a bunch of puzzle or memory type of questions, but still it showed that my mother-in-law was definitely memory impaired.