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Elderly parents
Original poster

Returned from Hospital with no teeth

53 replies

norma1980 · 12/02/2025 09:44

My very elderly dad fell in the early hours and an ambulance took him in.

He was kept in A&E for the day and then dropped home later that day.

The people who dropped him home left him in living room and said he wasn't allowed upstairs without assistance and someone would be there within the hour to help him. No one has attended yet.

He was also returned home without his teeth.

He has no spare pair. No dentist.

I phoned hospital (I don't live in the country) and they said "it happens all the time" (lost teeth) and they can't find them. No idea what happened to them. He definitely went to hospital with them.

I know things happen but I've now a very elderly man who has no teeth and will be on soup for god knows how long.

I've called GP and local dentists and no one can help.

GP told me to call PALS and that's it.

Anyone experience anything similar please?

OP posts:
Fordian · 12/02/2025 09:55

I agree. I was always as a CT radiographer shocked at how casually in-patients belongings, (many from ED) were left in non descriptive bags under trollers or on the side; clothing, pairs of glasses, shoes, false teeth and expensive hearing aids.

Every so often there'd be a push to remind staff to ensure stuff stayed with patients, but, frankly, as time went on, more and more of our newer staff barely knew anything about the patient they'd accompanied to us, complete personal and professional uninterest. Thus no investment in helping that patient or advocating for them regarding personal property.

FiveShelties · 12/02/2025 09:53

Yes, this happened to my Dad. So frustrating as they also lost one of his hearing aids. I managed to get hold of a dentist who ordered new dentures and I ordered a new hearing aid. Sadly he died before either arrived and it all just made a bloody awful time worse.

I am so sorry you are on this position, I also live overseas and feels impossible to get things done sometimes.

Lollygaggle · 12/02/2025 09:46

Unfortunately it happens many, many times .

You can try calling PALS to see about hospital paying for a new set. However they cannot help with getting a dentist.

when he has his next set made get them to put his name inside the dentures so if they get lost he can be reunited with them. That being said it’s because 9 times out of 10 they are wrapped up in a tissue then accidentally binned .

The other warning is if he has had the same dentures many years it can be very difficult to, if not impossible, to get used to a new set when you are elderly . That being said even if he has no teeth most can , with careful selection, eat reasonably well .