My mother is 95 yr.'s old and lives in assisted living for dementia. Just had two teeth extracted and two fillings done. She needs 6 more pulled. Any advice?

mom is in assisted living and she has hospice care as a extra level of care. She has dementia, is 95 years old, wobbly, cannot hear well, cannot see well. The 6 teeth at this point aren't infected or rotting according to the dentist but are loose, and could lead to issues. she can eat fine with her teeth, nothing is causing her pain. I am thinking not having anything done unless she gets a infection, then the dentist can pull the tooth and give her antibiotics. Medicare does not pay for dental, dental surgery etc. and we have only a discount dental plan on her.

An abscess should be taken care of. It can cause other heath problems. The cavities too. But id the rest of her teeth are not causing problems I would wait and see. My cousin was called about his Mom who was in her 80s with AlZ. They wanted to do caps and root canals. He said no, pull the teeth infected. I have had root canals and crowns done, unless put to sleep someone suffering from Dementia is not going to sit thru the procedures. Putting them asleep is not wise either.

I wouldn't do anything if they aren't bothering her. My 91-year-old mother has terrible teeth to look at, but they don't bother her. The pain and cost to try and improve her teeth would not be worth it.

My mom's is 97 and her dentist had marked five of her teeth as needing to be extracted. About a year ago, I took her in because she was having some pain from a gum infection. Our old dentist had sold the practice and the new young woman gave us a prescription for the infection and also a referral to a dental surgeon to have all five teeth extracted. We met with the dental surgeon and he told us that if it were his mother he would recommend we leave the teeth in unless they were actively bothering her. I think that had been her previous dentist's approach, though he hadn't discussed it with me. We agreed, and have not had any problems since.

If you have medical power of attorney, or she is on hospice, you can refuse care. Seems a little profiteering if she's not in pain, especially if she's on hospice. Why pull six teeth if she only has weeks or months to live?

Is she having pain with the 6 teeth. Are they rotting or infected? If she can't eat with them then they should go. Your profile mentions hospice care, is she ill?