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