The University of Texas
Dental Branch at Houston A Part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Resources for “Your Oral Health” are provided by faculty of The UTHSC-H Dental Branch.

Award-Winning DVD Teaches Oral Care for Elderly, Special-Needs Patients

Dental Branch, Center on Aging create oral hygiene DVD

An award-winning teaching video titled, “Elder Loving CareT Oral Hygiene Training” is now available for purchase, thanks to a grant from the Isla Carroll Turner Friendship trust and collaboration between The University of Texas School of Nursing's Center on Aging and the UT Dental Branch.

The 14-minute DVD is intended for caregivers of the elderly, whether in a home, hospital or long-term care facility. Poor oral care can cause pain, reduced eating ability and bad breath - leading to social isolation. Because stroke survivors or patients with Alzheimer's or dementia may not be able to tell anyone about oral pain, their caregivers need to take the initiative. And yet, many caregivers do not realize the need, or if they do, many do not know how to help.

The video addresses both issues, using a script and patient scenarios developed by two Dental Branch faculty members and Nancy Bergstrom, Ph.D., R.N., director of the Center on Aging. The program was filmed at Brighton Gardens of Bellaire, a senior living facility, by a TV crew from the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

June Sadowsky, D.D.S., M.P.H., assistant professor in Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials, and Donna Warren-Morris, R.D.H., associate professor of Periodontics, both appear in the video, explaining the need for good oral care and demonstrating how to do it. They both credit Center on Aging medical writer/producer Phyllis Lengyel with making the script, location and residents fit the patient care scenarios they wanted to address.

Dental Branch students will use the DVD as a teaching tool when they do inservice training for nurse aides, and Warren-Morris noted that “it would be a great educational tool for alumni across the state to use to improve the oral health of institutionalized elderly.”

For more information about the “Elder Loving Care™ Oral Hygiene Training” DVD, contact Sadowsky at 713-500-4064 or Warren-Morris at 713-500-4396. To purchase the video, contact TexTeach, LLC c/o Jayne Ball. Video clips are available on the School of Nursing Web site.