Dental Hygiene and Aphasia

Overall health and wellbeing require consistent oral care and hygiene. Many people have extreme anxiety around the dentist, leading to a lack of oral care. Much of the time, fear is conversationally alleviated between the patient and the dentist; however, for people with conversational hardships such as aphasia, this is limited. Part of the issue is a lack of knowledge on the provider side of effective methods of communication. The most influential and tangible way to reduce this discrepancy between communication and understanding is to educate dentists on ways to constructively interact with their patients. This presentation will provide a person with aphasia’s perspective of receiving dental care as well as communication strategies. This information can be shared with dental care providers to enhance consistent oral care for persons with aphasia.