Informed Aging

Episode 102: Keeping Your Teeth for a Lifetime

• Robin Rountree • Season 1 • Episode 103

Share episode

Welcome to Informed Aging, a podcast about health help and hard decisions for older adults. I'm Robin Rountree. I'm a former family caregiver. I've worked in the home care industry and now work for the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center. The thoughts and opinions expressed belong to myself and my guest, not our wonderful employers and sponsors. Before making any significant changes in your life or your person's life.

[00:00:30] Please consult your own experts. Today we are going to talk with a woman who calls herself the geriatric tooth fairy. Now that's interesting, so stay tuned.

[00:01:16] When someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia, everything changes. The world becomes uncertain. The path forward can feel overwhelming. At the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, we walk that path with you. For over 40 years. Our non-profit organization has helped families navigate the maze of care, support, and resources.

[00:01:39] Not just with information, but with compassion. Our programs are built for impact, supporting the emotional and logistical burdens that caregivers face every day. We invest in the care partners we serve, and we rely on the investment of others to do what we do. This is where you can make a lasting difference.

[00:01:59] When you invest in A DRC, you're not funding a moment. You're empowering a movement. Please call us at (407) 436-7750 or visit us online@wwwdorccares.org slash donate to contribute.

[00:02:15] Robin Rountree: So she goes by the name Geriatric Tooth Fairy, which we're gonna get right into. But we are talking today with Dr. Sonia Dunbar. She's a specialist in oral health with extensive experience in geriatric care. So welcome and please explain the nickname. 

[00:02:35] Sonya Dunbar: Well, you know, the Geriatric Tooth Fairy It's not only a nickname, it's who I've become.

[00:02:41] Being able to serve our seniors in long-term care facilities, it just made sense.

[00:02:47] It's hard for them to have someone come see them in a long-term care facility. So I thought the geriatric tooth fairy gave them a good taste in their mouths of someone coming to take care of their teeth. 

[00:03:00] Robin Rountree: I love that.

[00:03:02] So talk to me, about what changes for us as we age what changes with our mouth and our teeth? Is it just the same thing we've been dealing with our whole lives?

[00:03:13] You hopefully brush and floss and do all that, but does it change as we age? 

[00:03:20] Sonya Dunbar: Yes, that's, that's a loaded question because a lot of things change as we age. Number one is our dental insurance. So once we retire our, usually our dental insurance changes once someone gets on Medicare or Medicaid. The dental insurance change and it doesn't cover a lot of things that we are used to having covered when we're working and had traditional dental insurance.

[00:03:46] So if you got extensive dental work like crowns and implants and bridges and things like that, a lot of that's not covered. So if you need that, once you get older, there's often, additional out-of-pocket fee that we're not accustomed to and we may not have had in our budget. That's number one.

[00:04:06] Okay. Number two, my dexterity changes. So if we're accustomed to brushing and flossing our teeth as we age, if we get arthritis or if we get Parkinson's disease or anything that affects our fingers and hands, we may not be as thorough as we were in cleaning our teeth, which leads to other things. If you're not cleaning your teeth, that could lean to gum disease and different things.

[00:04:29] If you have implants and you're not able to clean them with the water pick or floss threaders because of your hands and arthritis and different things like that, that changes. And the third thing, as we age, oftentimes we get on different medications. Some of the medications dry out our mouths.

[00:04:45] So if you're getting a dry mouth for blood pressure medication, diabetes medication, mental health medication, it's a lot of medications that causes Xerostomia, which is dry mouth. And if you don't have saliva in your mouth, that can lead to decay because saliva, rinses food and plaque off your teeth.

[00:05:02] And if you have dry mouth or even menopause. That plaque sticks to your teeth and causes root caries. So there's a lot of things as we age that we need to, to be aware of in our 

[00:05:14] Robin Rountree: mouths. Menopause affects your teeth?

[00:05:18] Sonya Dunbar: . Menopause affects everything for us women.

[00:05:21] Robin Rountree: Okay? So, you shouldn't beat yourself up if all of a sudden there are changes happening in your mouth and you're just getting older. It could be your medication, it could be your dexterity. And if you're thinking about retirement, go to the dentist now and get things done before that dental insurance goes away.

[00:05:41] . And, let's talk about implants. When I was a child, my grandparents had dentures and they hated them. And my grandmother lectured me to take care of my teeth because I would not want to have dentures.

[00:05:53] But now I hear implants all the time. What's, what's the difference and what are most people doing these days? 

[00:06:01] Sonya Dunbar: Well, the difference between implants and dentures is, I'm, I'm talking about all denture implants, like for all teeth missing because there's a lot of different types of implants.

[00:06:09] You can have an implant from one tooth missing, or you could get implants when you don't have any teeth in your mouth, so let's talk about that. Dentures are removable every day. They're supposed to be removed every day. They replace all your natural teeth. You take 'em out at night, you're never supposed to sleep in dentures and you clean them and you put 'em back in.

[00:06:30] In the morning, you brush your dentures and put 'em back in. Now implants are, like titanium implants that are drilled into your gums and bone that support and hold the dentures in. That way they can be snap on where you can remove them every day, but they're more secure in your mouth and they don't move around like dentures may.

[00:06:51] Or you can have the kind that are permanent and they're screwed in. The implant is drilled into your bone and it's the denture. The denture part is screwed onto it, and it's not removable unless you go to the dentist. But the big difference between dentures and implants, implant dentures are more supported.

[00:07:08] They don't move around and they look more natural. And people feel like they're permanent teeth because they don't come out like everyday, like your, traditional dentures will. It's more support and it's really big, especially on the lower part of the mouth because. It seems like when people get dentures, that's the part that resorb a lot more because the top part of your mouth is constantly beating the bottom part and that bone goes down.

[00:07:33] And when you talk, you'll be surprised how often your tongue hit your lower teeth. So oftentimes lower dentures often kick out or they'll move around. So a lot of people get implants on that lower part, so that holds in and the upper part as well, but it's a more secure supported denture. 

[00:07:52] Robin Rountree: Okay. Is getting dentures our implant just part of growing older, or can you keep your natural teeth until your last breath?

[00:08:02] Sonya Dunbar: I'm so glad you asked your question. So I'm gonna ask you a question. When you get, older, does your ear supposed to fall off? No. What about your nose? No, it stays. What about one finger when you get 50, you gotta lose a finger every 10 years. What about that? No. Why because your finger is in, is a bone.

[00:08:23] Your teeth is embedded in bone. Your skull is a bone you are not supposed to. Teeth falling out is not a part of aging. Your teeth are meant to last you a lifetime. You're eating a lifetime, but your teeth are meant to help you eat for a lifetime. The thing about teeth, just like every other, limb, you have to take care of your teeth.

[00:08:43] You have to, so your teeth are meant to last a lifetime, and I'm noticing that a lot of people are keeping their teeth a lot longer. Nice. I go in their, my home. I have people that are 103 years old and they, they have mostly all of their teeth except for their, their third molars. So people are keeping their teeth a lifetime.

[00:09:00] People are being more aware, and especially our baby boomers. In the nursing homes, they are really aware about oral care. They're the ones that go to the dentists, they're the ones that are getting gum surgery. They're the ones that are getting implants or a bridge if they're missing a tooth. A lot of my baby boomers are taking care of their teeth and they're lasting the rest of their lives.

[00:09:21] Robin Rountree: So it's not just aging, it's the care that you take for your teeth. 

[00:09:25] Sonya Dunbar: Absolutely.

[00:09:26] Robin Rountree: Alright, so let's say you haven't taken care of your teeth or you're making some bad decisions, as far as cost goes, it sounds like implants feel more like real teeth, but are they much more expensive than dentures or about the same?

[00:09:41] Sonya Dunbar: Oh wait, the, implants are much, much more expensive than regular dentures. Yeah. Much more expensive. It's gonna cost you some money. A lot of people finance those. 

[00:09:51] Robin Rountree: Oh, okay. 

[00:09:52] So let's say you're hearing this and you're like, oh, I don't wanna get dentures or implants 'cause that sounds like serious surgery to me. But you haven't taken great care of your teeth. Can you turn that habit around, kind of like exercise, and improve. 

[00:10:08] Sonya Dunbar: It depends on how far it's gone.

[00:10:10] Lemme give you a good example. If you're brushing your teeth and there's blood bleeding is always a sign of disease. If you rub your eyes and your eyes start bleeding, I promise you, you gonna get to the hospital. If you rub your ear and blood start coming out your ear, you going to the doctor, you gonna be like, wait a minute, it's not.

[00:10:25] So why do we see blood in our on our toothbrush? Your mouth is always gonna give you a warning when there's something wrong. So if you're brushing your teeth and there's blood on your toothbrush, that's your mouth saying, Hey, something's going on. It could be something minor like gingivitis, which is a hundred percent treatable.

[00:10:45] But if the more you let that blood happens and you don't go to the dentist, the longer it stays there, the less chance you have of being able to keep your teeth. Because once you get gum disease, people call it pyria.

[00:10:57] It can be kind of expensive to get that taken care of. So the sooner you take care of it, the better. But a lot of people don't, especially if you have comorbidities like diabetes. Diabetes is a big thing.

[00:11:08] Soon as people get diabetes, they go to the podiatrist, they get those feet taken care of, they get their eye taken care of. You need to go to the dentist and get your teeth taken care of. So the sooner you address the issue, the better chances of you being able to get that taken care of at the less price.

[00:11:24] Robin Rountree: So, Dr. Dunbar, how did you end up in the world of geriatric dentistry? 

[00:11:31] Sonya Dunbar: Thank you for asking that. The way I ended up is because my grandmother helped raised me. She was a pivotal part of my life. And which way I went. So when I was a young adult, she came down to live with me and my young family, and she had a lot of comorbidity.

[00:11:47] She had congestive heart disease. She's a diabetic, she lost a leg, and I just, I couldn't take care of her. So I had to put her in a long-term care facility and that was the hardest decision I ever made in my life. But I was there every morning and every evening I sometimes came on lunch break. And she had dentures.

[00:12:05] She didn't take care of her teeth, but when I would go, I would notice that her teeth, her dentures weren't clean. So I started cleaning her dentures every day. And I was in her room and she had a roommate in her room, and one day she never spoke to me, but one day she said, will you clean my teeth? so I went over there after I finished taking care of my grandmother and I started looking for the lady's toothbrush in the bathroom in her drawer.

[00:12:28] She didn't have one. I went to the nurse station and I asked if they have any toothbrushes. They said they don't have any. So I went to the store and I made her a little kit. I got her toothbrush, a tongue cleaner, a floss pick. And, toothpaste. And I put her name on it.

[00:12:41] And, and that next day I went and I brushed her teeth, flossed them real good, and she gave me a smile and I was just a pack of that smile and it made my heart warm. So now every day when I see my grandmother, I would go see her as well and brush her teeth as well. And I began to notice that the CNAs were a little overwhelmed and, and sometimes they would skip oral care.

[00:13:02] So I knew that was a situation there. In her honor, I started going in long-term care facilities and brushing people teeth for free. And I do believe if you have a passion for something, if you have a gift, it will make room for you. And that end up opening up a door for me to start my own business going in and providing dental care for people in long-term care facilities.

[00:13:21] So I, I believe in dental dignity onto death and I just believe that everybody deserves proper oral care, no matter what situation they're in. And people in long-term care facility, it's hard for them to get to the dentist . So dentistry needs to go to them. So that's how our business, started and grew. It grew from passion outta love for my grandmother and love for older people because I always had a heart for older people.

[00:13:45] So I speak all around the country about the importance of oral care as we age and how it affects the body. If your mouth isn't healthy, your whole body isn't healthy. It's important to take care of our mouth. 

[00:13:57] Robin Rountree: So, if, someone you love is in a long-term care facility, memory care assisted living, they're having some problems doing it themselves, what can you provide to help them?

[00:14:11] Sonya Dunbar: Okay. If someone has a loved one in some sort of a living facility, the first thing I would do is, go to the director of nursing or the director of the facility and ask them, what type of oral hygiene plan do you have in place for your residents? First thing I would ask, and let them know that you're concerned.

[00:14:30] The second thing that I would do is bring their supplies there. Bring her toothbrush, bring the floss, bring the threads, bring the mouthwash, and put it in a case and label everything when you go check, can see if it's being used.

[00:14:44] If you get it one month and the tooth thing haven't been squeezed and next month. You need to have a talk with the people.

[00:14:50] Robin Rountree: And then just advice if you're caring for somebody at home who's having issues brushing their teeth, do you have like a technique or suggestions for brushing someone else's teeth?

[00:15:02] Sonya Dunbar: Absolutely. The first thing I would recommend is an electric toothbrush because it'll do a lot of the work for you. The second thing I would recommend is always have a mirror handy so they can see what you're doing.

[00:15:14] 'cause people are used to standing in front of a mirror and brushing their teeth. So if you're doing a bedside, try to put a mirror in front of them so they can see what you're doing. And that would trigger something in that brain and it may make them allow you to brush longer. Stand to their least dominant side if they're right hand and stand to the left side.

[00:15:32] Just stand to the side of them and do the brushing motion with the electric brush and just, just let them know I'm brushing your teeth we're doing a good job. I'm brushing your teeth we're doing a good job. And then if they'll let you get a floss pick in there, kind of floss in between the teeth for the floss pick.

[00:15:47] I wouldn't recommend a string if they're apprehensive.

[00:15:50] Robin Rountree: Great advice. And how can somebody find you? Because I have a feeling you've got a lot more 

[00:15:55] tips. 

[00:15:56] Sonya Dunbar: Absolutely. I have a lot of tooth fairy tips. I'm available at sonyadunbar.com. Sonya dunbar.com also, all my social media handles is geriatric tooth fairy.

[00:16:10] Robin Rountree: Fantastic. We will put all that information in the comments. 

[00:16:14] Sonya Dunbar: Thank you for the opportunity to share.

[00:16:16] Please make sure to subscribe to our podcast Informed Aging and tell your family and friends about us. If you'd like to support the work that we do at the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, you can go to adrc cares.org/donate. You can find us at facebook.com/informed Aging.

[00:16:35] Today's episode was recorded at ARC's Podcast Studio. That's it for now. We are looking forwa