Who's responsible for replacing my father's dentures when staff lost them?

A few people seem not to realise that old people can be very apt to misplace things especially those with dementia. So how can it be their responsibility to look after their own things when they don't know what the day of the week it is. My partner who has alzheimers was admitted to a psychiatric ward for the elderly. I informed the staff that of late she was apt to removing her top plate and was reassured when they told me they were used to events like this and her denture wouldn't get lost. Well they were lost within a week and when i raised it with the nurses I was told it was the nature of the ward. These patients are unable to think for themselves and so require staff to keep a close eye on them. Thank God my partner is back home with me and i can look after her properly.

Check the paperwork you signed when he was admitted. Many facilities limit the items they are responsible for.

My mother was constantly hiding her "valuables" then claiming they had been stolen when she couldn’t remember where she had hidden them. I would get calls from her asking if I knew where an item was, would go to her AL and toss her room only to find the stolen item tucked in a drawer shoe, even the fridge. She was obsessed with the thought that someone was coming into her room and stealing things.

I had no reason to believe the staff or other residents were taking things and we always found the item eventually.

My late age 94 mother in the mental decline had lost 3 cell phone charger cables at $15 each. She likely thought they were trash because that is where they likely ended up. So the staff and family finally tied a new one with her name on a string to a drawer handle so poor Mom never lost any more!

The good news is that the mold for his dentures is new, so you should order another pair right away. In terms of who is responsible, it depends. My dad was ill one day and vomited. His upper dentures were lost by the staff in the clean-up. The facility accepted responsibility and replaced them. It took several months because they had to make new molds. The facility doctor absentmindedly picked up dad's eyeglasses in another instance so sometimes, it really isn't the patient's fault. The person who added that Covid-19 creates a complexity in this issue is right. First, if family can't visit in person, it is difficult to manage all the personal possession issues, and second, replacing dentures is made more difficult because of Covid as well. Talk to the social worker assigned to your dad and see what can be done.

Imho, order a new set of dentures STAT for your father, albeit whatever the cost may be. At least the new set can begin to be manufactured. Whether the NH's fault or not, to prevent reoccurrence, place in writing in the Nursing Home care plan that your father wears a full set of dentures. The lost dentures may or may not turn up.

you didn't put them on the inventory form you're supposed to fill out when you are in nursing homes etc? You're also supposed to keep it updated. If it's on that form, then they are responsible. That's the purpose of the form.

Same thing happened to my partner. She was in hospital in a locked ward for people with dementia. She was taken there for what I thought was going to be a few days to be assessed for suitable medication to ease her restlessness. Told them of late she was removing her denture and was told not to worry as they were used to that. Felt reassured. Well they were lost within a week and when I complained was told 'its the nature of the ward. After I asked them to investigate further the denture was found over a week later. Then they were lost again for good and again was told by the staff 'its the nature of the ward. And these people are supposed to be professionals caring for patients who can't think for themselves. You have got to laugh at their 'professionalism'.

These places won't replace dentures, they won't replace hearing aids, they won't replace glasses. Our system is horrible. Once I went to visit my mother and she was wearing someone else's glasses. The staff told me I was free to walk around and even go into residents' rooms (!!!) searching for her glasses. I refused to do that. Eventually her glasses reappeared on her face.

As others noted, most likely the "contract" has wording to cover issues like lost items. More than likely there is a clause covering things like glasses, dentures, hearing aids, etc, never mind jewelry, clothing and shoes or other personal items. This would be esp true in a MC unit, as some residents will go "shopping."

I don't think they are as careful as they can be. When I was first asked to bring in larger undies and clothes, as mom gained 20# in her first year, I was perplexed by some of the under garments I found in her drawer. They assured me each resident's laundry is done separately, but clearly it wasn't. Mom NEVER wore "stretchy" undies and there were multiple pairs in her drawer. During a more recent visit (within a year) she was wearing clothes I have never seen! Hopefully if the real owner's family saw this they wouldn't blame mom!!! By that time she was reliant on a wheelchair and was never one to "shop" anyway.

Despite handing over some "responsibility" for mom's hearing aid (even easier to lose/misplace/toss than a denture) and even more after I had to replace it when it went through the laundry (the new one was rechargeable, so I gave the charger to the nurse, recommended take it from her at night, charge overnight and return in the morning), they still managed to lose one (likely wrapped in tissue or napkin and tossed.) They refused to help cover the minimal replacement cost (the purchase included loss warranty, so only $400 to get another.)

IF the dentist could make a replacement based on the impression from first one (should work, esp if it hasn't been long since it was made), I would recommend the following:

1) have his name engraved on it
2) request they make this part of his care - give them to him at meals and take it away after. He should only really need them at meal times.

Granted it is also a self-esteem thing, esp if he is still mentally aware (no dementia), so his preference might be to have them all the time. But, if he can be reasoned with, explain this is a necessity so that they won't get lost again and he will have them for all meals/snacks. If/when close family is visiting, they can be the ones to request the dentures and "watch" over them during the visit. Return them for safekeeping at the end of the visit. Then he can have his teeth while others are there, making life and his self image a little better for him.

Your Dad is responsible for them.

My mom was also in a skilled nursing facility & bedridden. It's hard because they do rely on someone for everything. I had a small basket on her table she used to put glasses, lipstick, pencil, brush, etc. Of course she also had a closet & nightstand with things in them. But told her & every family member. Anything goes missing we are not complaining. I felt we had a great facility & didn't want to jeopardize that. Mom wanted to always have cash way more than needed I didn't like it but made her happy. Told myself who cares if it's lost she is happy. I understand dentures are expensive but you can't blame the staff. As others said if resident wraps them in napkin, or thinks they placed it on table but it really fell in the bed & got swooped away in the sheets this may have happened to my moms jewerly I watched her several times thinking she placed something on table or basket & it fell on the bed. Things will happen, pick your battles. But know it will happen again. Dentist should have records ask for another set. But first ask staff to look around, ask if found every few days then let it go. I wouldn't get ombudsmen involved or make a higher complaint. We can't be with them 24/7 & we don't know what really happened. Taking good care of my parent & doing something I could not makes me very appreciated for the work they do.

Did the dentures have his name on them? I never thought about putting a name on dentures till I had to wear a temporary plate after dental implant surgery. The dentist had engraved my name on it. My mom periodically breaks her top plate and the last time it happened, I had her dentist engrave my mom’s name on them. Before Covid19, my daily visit occasionally included a hands and knees assisted hunt for her glasses or teeth. Yuck 🤢.

In addition to the nightly denture soak, I would use an ultraviolet denture sanitizer.

Sometimes another resident can take them. My mother was in a nursing home in which one resident, whose physical abilities far exceeded her mental status, would go from room to room taking some things and destroying or discarding others. It was found that she had taken one resident's dentures and thrown them into the waste basket and and also tore up some paperwork she found in the room. I suspect the facility would bear some responsibility in this case, considering that this resident was a known "wanderer". (Unfortunately, this was some seven or eight years ago, and I don't recall the outcome,)

Staff at facilities are NOT responsible for personal items - which includes dentures, glasses and hearing aids.

While staff do try to be careful when they handle these items, they have no control over it if a client decides to put his dentures somewhere illogical where they cannot be found. For all you know, your father could have thrown them into a nearby wastebasket. It is unrealistic to expect staff to be pawing through every room wastebasket daily in search for lost personal items.

You father needs a large denture container with his name displayed on it in big letters, and you need to tell him to always place them in the container if he takes them out of his mouth.

I am so sorry to hear about your father’s dentures. You did not indicate if the “facility” put out a search for his dentures. They could have been left on a cafeteria tray, picked up by another resident, thrown in the garbage, the list is endless. Losing dentures is expensive and affects the health of an individual for proper nutrition , facial muscles, etc. I hope you can find them, but be aware it can and probably will happen again. My mother lost glasses one day. They were no where to be found. Then one day I saw another resident wearing my mother’s glasses. I explained the situation to her, and she remarked no wonder she could not see out those glasses because they were not her prescription. My mother also wore dentures, but she gave up wearing the bottoms, eventually she also gave up wearing the the top dentures as well. You probably need to decide to buy another pair. If you visit frequently you can hold them in your possession, if not, the risk of losing them is always there.

Look at pre-admittance contract; no doubt the facility is covered and not responsible for the loss of personal items.

He removed his dentures and placed them... where?

That is a rhetorical question: it would be completely unreasonable to expect you to know. But you must surely equally understand that it is not possible for aides to monitor the whereabouts of every denture at all times. Less than two weeks ago my blood ran cold when I stopped myself throwing an "empty" potato chips packet away in the nick of time - my client had been eating them, a piece got stuck under her dental plate, so she took it out, and where better to keep it safe than in the packet?

Dentures in even my limited experience have already turned up:
in a shoe
inside a pillow case
dressing gown pockets x dozens
spectacles case
wrapped in paper napkins on plates x gazillions
between bed and bedside table
between cushions


So we might know where to start looking. But you cannot expect a facility to shake out and search every paper napkin, every waste paper basket, every plate and mug, every laundry item as a matter of routine.

The key thing is that your father needs his denture. Order another one from the Jan 2020 mould and don't waste any more time arguing about the bill.

To prevent its happening again (or help prevent it, anyway) try to highlight on his care plan that a) he wears full dentures b) he takes them out c) he stashes them; so that the staff are encouraged to develop a routine of checking he's wearing them and, if he isn't and he should be, putting out an APB for them before the garbage is collected or the laundry is taken away.

Dentures are your father's teeth!! How careless for staff to lose them.

My mom's dentures went missing. It was an expensive loss and we wondered whether we should replace them. Glad we waited to decide. A personal support worker came on shift from days off and she knew exactly where they were. Another resident down the hall had them! Happy for us, but unfortunate for her. This woman had stolen teeth before.

Just food for thought, where would this end if they took responsibility for things lost? My mother “ lost” her glasses constantly. Usually we found them in a seat cushion but whose responsibility is that? IMO it’s a bit much to expect a worker to do more than a cursory check for items like that, especially since the patient could have wrapped them up, put them under their pillow , who knows where! In many ALFs they’d need a full time staff just to look for things.

Look at the contract for his facility to see if they are covered. Also look at your insurance to see if they will cover the cost.

The staff at my dad's LTC threw out the lower denture that was wrapped in a napkin on his tray. They would not replace them...end of story.

It commonly happens that dentures are lost At a facility. In my facility we fill out a concern form and ask dietary, nursing, environmental etc if they have fiund a pair of dentures. Sometimes this locates them, but if not our facility pays to replace them. They were list on our watch. Call yo do a complaint.concern. Also call an ombudsman, a person who is an advocate for an individual in a facility. They are able to put done real pressure on the facility. You can also call protective services in your state and file a report of misappropriation of belongings and the state will investigate.

Is there a camera In his room? I am curious as to who may have taken them...it's not like something "Disposable" Like a Napkin...could it have been the cleaning lady? Either way, as a "Denture wearer" your father should be reimbursed for those dentures..not only are they expensive and a pain to create, but as you say, they are a Part of Him....I hope you find out what happened to them and that he will soon have a new pair of teeth.

Hi Wickham, so sorry to hear this but the key statement “he removed them” means that the facility is not responsible for reimbursement. My background is Risk mgmt. and that is clearly a policy of most facilities. The only time the facility is responsible for the cost is if the staff were in possession of the dentures. Such as removing them for any reason. Also check with the dental office that did the fitting since it’s less than a year they usually can help

Wickham, check your own home insurance policy. I know that my policy has a clause that insures "a parent, son, daughter, spouse, adult interdependent partner or dependent of the Named Insured, who resides in a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, or intermediate or long-term care facility".

There is no way that anyplace can be responsible for replacing dentures for patients. I have been a nurse and have seen them in garbage, flushed down toilets ruining the system temporarily, left on dinner trays necessitating a thorough search of a kitchen hard at work clearing trays. I have gone through more garbage than I can tell you. It is awful and it is sad, but likely the dentures were left on a tray and got shoveled into the garbage. Be sure that kitchen is aware of this loss. In my experience it is where teeth show up.

Not sure what the answer is here, but I suggest carefully reading the contract with the facility to see if loss of personal items is addressed at all. It's not like stealing a piece of jewelry, dentures are something only valuable to the wearer. As you say, it's a piece of your father!

Sadly, the facility simply doesn't have the manpower to make checks on things like dentures, hearing aids, removal bridges..etc.

This reminds me of my kids' popping their retainers out of their mouths so they could eat lunch. In the hubbub of getting ready to move out of the cafeteria, they'd forget the retainer and of course the school wasn't responsible for my kids scatterbrained behavior.

I don't think any NH could stand the cost of the replacement of the MANY things that go missing.

I'm sorry for you and dad. Dentures are so expensive. Along with hearing aids--getting old is expensive in so many ways.

Wickham, you don't give any details, like if your father has any cognitive decline. Without having accidentally witnessed what happened it would unfair to blame the staff. Often elders will remove the dentures and put them on their food tray or plate. If the napkin goes on top of that, they get accidentally tossed. It's not that staff's job to check the mouth of every resident after every meal. Please realize that they have turnover in staffing and new people will not even know who has dentures. I'm not sure if his dentist has a "copy" of what was made for him (and I realize it will be expensive) but this would be the easiest/fastest way to replace them. If it is at all a financial option, I strongly recommend implants. I've seen a denture-like plate that they permanently anchor in the gums, so that they aren't anchoring each individual tooth. This will not be the last time you have adventures with dentures. As LOs lose their memories or develop dementia, they will actually take them out, wrap them in something and purposefully hide them. I'm so sorry for this disappointment. I hope you can find a workable solution so your dad can have his teeth and dignity back.