My husband has always taken good care of his teeth so we were surprised when a Speech Pathologist expressed concerns about his oral health. She said his tongue appeared to be thicker than usual and asked if he was having a tough time keeping it clean. She reminded him that in addition to brushing his teeth, he needs to brush his tongue and rinse out his cheeks. These actions happen automatically with the rest of us who don’t have PD and it just goes to show how diligent my husband has to be to make sure he is getting everything done.

I believe this goes back to the difficulties he faces when his body forgets how to do those basic or autonomic tasks and he has to think everything through one step at a time. Some steps get lost. He brushes his teeth twice a day, morning and night. He has a water pick and “blasts” his mouth out after dinner. Still he wasn’t getting it all cleared and, perhaps even more relevant, wasn’t realizing it.

Twice a week I help him shave, we call it barbershop day. We added a component where I brush his teeth and help him scrub his tongue. It is making a difference to his oral health and should be beneficial to his swallowing, I hope. This disease just keeps bringing new challenges to the table and we will keep figuring out ways to face them. In the meantime we both know he has a clean and healthy mouth.