Course Description & Speaker Bio

 

Dentistry in the time of Dementia: Dementia Types, Meds, and Tx Planning

Presented by Joy Poskozim, DDS, FSCD, CDP

Course Description

The geriatric community is underserved; especially those patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, or who are otherwise homebound, in residential care or assisted living communities. Through house call dentistry, clinicians provide dental care when, where and how it meets the individual patient’s needs. Learn what you need to know and what you need to do to provide convenient, safe dental care for patients in the comfort of their home environments.

Explore the early signs of dementia versus manifestations of normal aging. Illuminate the bidirectional relationship between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s disease, including how proper oral hygiene may lessen Alzheimer’s symptoms, as well as slow down the progress of this disease. Discover the flexibility of virtual technology (teledentistry) in conducting remote, problem-focused evaluations. Recognize the inherent communication challenges and tips for honing verbal skills. Identify the essential records and documentation to keep in the patient’s record. Feel good about providing the best oral care to ensure your patient is comfortable, they can eat, swallow, and feel good about smiling.

Course Objectives

  • Identify and explore the challenges of aging.
  • Recognize the various types of dementia, how each type physically manifests, and the associated oral hygiene care challenges and oral health issues.
  • Discover the role that periodontitis plays in dementia’s progression.
  • Develop enhanced communication techniques to increase patient cooperation.
  • Learn how to use technology to assess patients’ conditions via images.
  • Specify the appropriate documentation for the patient’s record.
  • Explore the pharmacologic treatment and cognitive enhancers approved for Alzheimer disease and drugs that can make dementia worse.
  • Discuss the roles and responsibilities of the emergency contact, custodial parent, and joint custody, and their legal authority to act on the patient’s behalf.
  • Recognize the legal differences between emergency contacts, durable and general powers of attorney.
  • Gain strategies for working in partnership with referring dentists, primary care physicians, caregivers and families to determine the best treatment for each patient.

About the Speaker

Through geriatric house call dentistry, clinicians provide dental care when, where and how it meets the individual patient’s needs. Joy V. Poskozim DDS FSCD CDP, a general dentist and national speaker teaches dental and medical audiences what they need to know and what they need to do to provide mobile dental care to patients in the comfort of their home environments.

Dr. Joy’s true passion is being an advocate for the geriatric population. She is the dental director for several nursing care facilities, educating staff as well as providing care to nursing home residents. She also makes house calls in and around the Chicagoland area. Dr. Poskozim has been in private practice for 25 years, practicing integrative health general dentistry at her office on the northwest side of Chicago, and has been performing dental procedures on the home-bound for over 16 years. In 2017 she earned her Dentistry in Long-Term Care Certificate from the University of the Pacific Dental School, her Fellowship with the Special Care Dental Association Geriatric Council in 2018, and is certified as a Dementia Practitioner as of 2021.

Dr. Joy is a 1990 graduate of Marquette University, and New York University College of Dentistry in 1994. She completed a GPR from Woodhull Medical Center in 2000 where she was awarded Resident of the Year.