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Open wide: Hygienist fills dental care needs at Rock Haven

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Photo by Dan Lassiter

Dental Hygienist Angie Stone cleans 81-year-old Marie Coyle's teeth at Rock Haven.

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Dental Hygienist Angie Stone flosses Rock Haven resident Kevin Zalud's teeth during a cleaning.

JANESVILLE — Dental hygienist Angie Stone noticed the lack of dental services available in nursing homes when her mother-in-law spent the last year of her life in one.

“It just really made me upset that I couldn’t get her mouth clean,” she said.

Understanding the strong correlation between mouth health and a person’s overall health, she wanted to do something.

“Oral health is vitally important to general health, and it just cannot be overlooked if we want to be healthy,” she said.

Stone started working with area nursing homes to do in-service training for the staff.

“I didn’t talk about brushing and flossing,” she said. “They have to know why they’re doing that—not just because we need fresh breath.”

She’s trained staff annually on the health implications of dental care at Rock Haven Nursing Home in Janesville for three years. Recently she went beyond the training to cleaning.

Most private dentist offices don’t accept medical assistance, the plan on which many Rock Haven residents rely, Stone said. That puts them at a disadvantage because they can’t get their teeth cleaned, she said.

“They should have every opportunity that anyone else in the community has,” she said.

Stone set up a plan with Rock Haven administration to do annual cleanings for residents using an old dental office within the building. The home has a staff dentist who performs annual exams and will refer patients to Stone for cleanings, administrator Sherry Gunderson said.

Rock Haven spent about $1,000 on start-up equipment and supplies, she said. Rock Haven will bill medical assistance for the cleanings and reimburse Stone with the medical assistance payments—usually around $28 for a cleaning, Stone said.

“Nobody’s going to get rich doing this,” she jokes.

But working with such patients includes a lot of psychological, mobility and educational issues, she said. Many of the seniors grew up in a time when tooth care wasn’t seen as important as it is today—six-month cleanings weren’t standard, she said.

Stone offered positive encouragement for patients Wednesday, including 81-year-old Marie Coyle. Getting from her wheelchair to the old, baby blue dentist chair that doesn’t move was a challenge.

“You are an excellent patient ma’am,” Stone said, joking about how Coyle got a free face wash, too.

Equipment, however, was less than ideal, as Stone stood over her patients and reached for tools. Cleanings include flossing and a fluoride treatment to decrease plaque on patients’ teeth.

Her services will be focused on the younger and mentally ill residents, Gunderson said, because many chronically mentally ill residents have spent much of their adult life in institutions where dental care hasn’t been a priority.

Of Rock Haven’s 130 residents, only about 40 will be referred to Stone, simply because many of the older patients don’t have teeth, Gunderson said.

Stone has been in the dental field since 1984, currently working at Milton Family Dentistry and teaching in-service training for certified nurse assistants and registered nurses.

She recently completed a study with Rock Haven patients that looked at the effectiveness of mouth care products for people who don’t regularly brush and floss. She’s still working on the results, which will be published soon.

Stone loves working with geriatric patients—it’s like a social outing for them, she said.

“It’s going to be really cool to have a challenge and be able to help someone who isn’t getting any help,” she said.