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My mom is 90 and has vascular dementia; she's been in a NH for about 6 months due to a broken hip, CHF and increasing confusion. Due to aspiration pneumonia during the winter, she was put on a pureed diet, now upgraded to chopped. At some point, her partial bridge got damaged and no longer fits. She wants to be fitted for a new bridge because she's convinced that she'll be able to eat solid food again. Do we humor her? Trying to figure out if she's got the fine motor skills and/or procedural memory to learn to put in and take out a new bridge. Will she understand if she gets a new bridge that she probably won't be able to eat unchopped food again? I've explained this to her, the speech therapist and dentist have explained it to her, but since she's really not forming new memories, she goes back to "if I only had a bridge, I could" Any thoughts out there from those who've been through this?

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Oh, boy, with dementia she will dislodge the new bridge and she might choke on it, or pieces of it. I would stick with the dentist's opinion and follow his lead. If she damaged the old bridge, she will damage the new one. Very scary.
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Pam, I appreciate your weighing in on this; it hadn't occured to me that SHE might have damaged the old bridge, or the choking aspect. That's why I love this site and all of you SO MUCH!!!!!!
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I agree, ba8alou. Aside from the fact that she may break the new partial it would cost a lot of money to replace it and she just may not be able to adapt to a new partial anymore. When my dad's health was declining he complained that he needed a new prescription for his glasses, he needed a new hearing aid, and he wanted to go to the dentist. He just couldn't afford to do all of this and with his brain swelling he was misplacing his glasses and hearing aid all the time. It would have been money down the drain not to mention the stress and anxiety of getting him to these appointments. But once he went on hospice it became a moot point.

If it won't improve her quality of life I wouldn't do it.
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