Stories

• CareSearch Engagement Project
• The role of the speech pathologist in paediatric palliative care
• Live well, die gently: Allied Health supporting children in palliative care
• Broadening the role of paramedics in palliative care
• Trajectories of functional decline at the end of life. What do they tell us?
• Understanding palliative care and why it matters
• Is there scope for technology to add value in palliative care?
• Three things you need to know about dementia and dying
• WA’s commitment to quality and culturally respectful end-of-life and palliative care
• Caring for dying patients in an acute hospital setting, three tips for getting it right
• Dancing Between Two Rooms: Social Workers Engaging with People as they Live with Dying
• Staying in the ring: Clinical speech pathology at the end of life
• Bridging the Evidence Gap in Allied Health
• The Role of the Occupational Therapist in Palliative Care
• The Role of Music Therapy in Addressing Anxiety in Palliative Care – Part Two
• The Role of Music Therapy in Addressing Anxiety in Palliative Care – Part One
• When the small things become extraordinarily important…
• Lifting weights and spirits!
• The Role of Allied Health is Essential for People Living with MND

Palliative Care in the Dental Setting

Dental is an area of palliative care that is emerging and needs to be understood more fully. Working in Special Care Dentistry for 25 years, I know how critical it is for each person to have optimal care tailored to their needs. I treat many dental issues following radiotherapy and chemotherapy or in the lead up to stem cell transplant. When these active cancer treatments don’t offer good results, palliative care can replace curative care. Palliative care is active and supportive care which optimises comfort and quality of life.

I recall a patient waiting for a stem cell transplant for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia who acquired bacterial neutropoenia (insufficient neutrophils - a type of white blood cell) which increased the risk of serious bacterial infections. His prognosis meant that palliative care overrode the option of complex dental work. Until his end of life, my colleagues and I provided treatment in clinic and at home to maintain mouth comfort. Support and instructions for his family on how to provide simple mouth toilets that soothed his dry and ulcerated mouth were our priority. Importantly, we put into place strategies that reduced secondary infections in his mouth and alleviated some of the discomfort.

This is but one case of many where working actively and collaboratively goes a long way to providing dignity and respect at any stage of palliation.

Margie Steffens OAM, ADDH, BSc Dent (Hons) Special Needs Unit, Adelaide Dental Hospital.