Has anyone had a family member with dementia get dentures?

My mother has been in a nursing home for 8 years (in two different states, combined). Although she used to be fastidious about dental care before dementia started becoming a factor, she essentially quit taking care of them, and the second nursing home used to provide a rinse/mouthwash (I've mentioned this in a posting a couple years ago), this hasn't been consistent and her teeth have decayed, with many of them breaking to the gum line or falling out (and her love of sweets certainly hasn't helped!). She mentioned a few years ago that she wouldn't want dentures, and now at 95 it probably wouldn't make sense. Fortunately, she can still eat with what she has, and surprisingly hasn't suffered any pain. She has very little appetite (except for sweets, of course!) and her food is typically chopped up. I figure it's probably best to leave well enough alone at this point, and if anything happens such as pain or infection, we'll have to figure out the best way to deal with it then. We took her to a "local" (literally across the street--we pushed her there in a wheelchair!) dentist about 6 years ago and she had some work done, and the nursing home has mentioned having a dentist come in, but like other things they promise, I don't really know if it ever happened.

Thank God mom has had dentures for 40 years...she is 85 (soon). She cannot feed herself now.....she walks around mindless. Having said that, I am know ahe would not do well with dentures if this was a new experience. Best wishes to you.

Well, from what I've read here from time to time even when people DO have dentures they are often lost or misplaced by patients or staff or thrown out. My initial reaction is that you touch base with your local long term care ombudsman or an elder law attorney because I'm not so sure about a LTC facility being able to turn anyone away due to dietary needs. And I hate to be cynical...but there are some DDS's out there for the $$. If you do decide to go ahead I'd also try to find out if there are any practices where the dentures can be made with some of the higher tech cameras and equipment which may alleviate the stress of the goop in the mouth routine. I don't know if that works for dentures...but I'd hope so. My mom is 96 with dementia and had always been meticulous about brushing and flossing but clearly stopped. She was discovered to have 3 cavities which she tolerated getting tended to in about 6 visits which tallied up to $2K. Unreal. She has a couple teeth in a way that are not "restorable" according to the DDS, but for now they are being left alone. I have been through a number of procedures myself, and just wonder, if and when they do have to be removed...how it's going to go because clearly she's not going to follow the post-op instructions and she can be quite unpleasant when either me or my dad try to tell her to something...Will be interested to see what others have to say here...

My LO with dementia lives in a nursing home now but prior to this move she lived alone, and would never wear her dentures to eat. Lost them several times. Refused to use polident or any other product to hold them in. By the time she got to the nursing home her dentures were god knows where. Never found them. Social Worker decided to get her a new set. My thought is that this is a waste of time, however she did get them, and has NEVER worn them. Her memory is so bad she doesn’t even know she has them, and I know she’s also not interested in ever wearing them.
So, she remains on a soft mechanical diet.

Kittykat, are the missing teeth the only reason Mum is on a mechanically softened diet? I am asking, because my Dad is missing a great many teeth and he eats regular foods for the most part. He cannot eat tough veggies like Kale or corn on the cob, steak is not an option, but he eats almost everything else. Dad cannot eat apples, but can easily eat pears, bananas, grapes, oranges and more.

Dad is not at all interested in dentures or having the rest of his teeth looked after, so they are slowly breaking and falling out. Dad does not have dementia is 91.

I had to start looking after my mom's dentures as her dementia got worse. It wasn't a big deal, but at the very end I would have to clean and put them in for her. Guess it depends on how many teeth have to be pulled, but it would be rough. My mom still had to go on soft diet, even with teeth.

You have other problems with this as well.
Taking mom in to have teeth removed is difficult, she will have to be sedated and recovery from sedation is not always great. Then she will have to deal with aftercare with wounds in her mouth. I strongly doubt the the facility will do a great job in following up with this. Then simply having her fitted will probably require sedation. then getting her to keep them in will be a problem. (Unless you go for implants.)
I find it hard to believe that Memory Care facilities can not or will not accommodate someone needing a mechanical soft or a pureed diet. She can't be the only one with missing, broken or no teeth!

My experience has not been good. Mom had been wearing dentures for decades. She was always fastidious about maintaining it. Then she stopped cleaning it. I took over that. Then she would misplace it. I found it a couple of times in the garbage. Then finally it disappeared for good. I have no idea where it may be. We haven't replaced them. I don't see the point. I also worry that it's a chock hazard. I don't think it's a good idea to have it in her mouth anymore.

I haven't dealt with this. I hope you'll get responses from those who have. I think you're smart to be concerned about your mom misplacing the dentures or forgetting to put them in. It's a huge issue. I can't imagine why a place that is equipped to manage the care of someone with dementia, wouldn't have soft food option.