My mom is 82 and having a hard time with both her medical health has well as her teeth. I’ve come to help her as she recovers from a cancer surgery. Now she has radiation. I went with her to see the dentist. He was a bit of a Debbie Downer. One thing I didn’t like was how he talked about my mother and not to her. She’s older, yes, but not incompetent. He said she hasn’t been caring for her teeth and he recommends that we just get her dental implants. That would require surgery and I don’t think she can handle that right now. Are there other options for her?
Ellen
Dear Ellen,
I’m going to say up front that I am not very impressed by your mother’s dentist. As you mentioned, he is disrespectful to her as an autonomous human. But, it’s a bit more than that. Given her age and state of health, the treatment he’s recommended it totally inappropriate.
Her immune system is under attack right now. She’s just had surgery that she’s struggling to heal from, she had cancer which causes its own immune issues, and she’s in radiation, which further lowers her immune system. Suggesting another invasive procedure which requires surgery is dangerous, in my opinion.
Bear in mind that I haven’t examined your mother, but I would first be inclined to get a second opinion. You would want to save as many teeth as possible. Cancer treatments are notoriously hard on teeth so being proactive about that is important. Her current dentist seems more interested in getting the fee for dental implants. He is ethically obligated to give your mother all of her options. It does not sound like that happened.
I would start by making sure that her teeth cannot be saved. If they can’t, I would recommend dentures. Normally, I’d advice against that because of the risk of facial collapse. Given her age, though, that is not likely to be an issue. Then, after she has beaten her cancer and her immune system has recovered, you can discuss dental implants. The benefit to her at that point would be a higher quality of life when it comes to eating.
This blog is brought to you by gentle dentists from Decatur, AL Drs. Drake and Wallace.