Safe Mouth Care

[pat-in-fl]

Anyone have any ideas how I can safely do mouth care with my mom? I have a suction machine that I use when I do her mouth care. I use a baby toothbrush and also toothettes (the spongy things on a stick) with some peroxi-mint solution. Suctioning the whole time. Mom has bulbar onset, on G/J tube feedings, nothing by mouth, has difficulty with her saliva and taking Robinul to dry up oral secretions. She has a VERY hyperactive gag reflex. In fact has had the heaves twice now while I was trying to do her mouth care. And I was only getting to the front 1/3 of her tongue! Any new suggestions welcome!! Pat

[sharonca]

My mother used Biotene mouthwash. It managed to clear up an absess on her gums. Purchased at most drug stores. We put it on the spong sticks and rubbed it on her gums. She could only handle baby toothbrush and baby toothpaste. The Biotene really did the trick on keeping the infections away.

Sharonca

[Shatzie]

Each time I was pregnant I had an exaggerated gag reflex. I found that mint toothpaste made it worse, so I used cinnamon tooth paste and that helped a lot.