Dentition, Dental Care, Dysphagia and Diet ecourse

The four D's - dentition, dental care, dysphagia and diet are intertwined. This seminar will build on our basic knowledge and delve deeper into the role of dentition in maintaining our patient's health. What role does each tooth play in mastication? What disease processes wreak havoc on our patient's dental health? Dental care or oral hygiene takes a toll on our patient's health as well. Not only is dental care imperative for all individuals on our case load, but it is especially critical for individuals with specific diseases. We will discuss the impact of poor dental care on overall health. Individuals on our dysphagia caseloads have any combination of natural dentition, partial or full dentures or are edentulous. What role does dentition status and dysphagia play in diet selection? How does lack of dentition increase the patient's risk of aspiration? Rather than continuing to use the guidelines for the National Dysphagia Diet, the IDDSI should be implemented in our facilities. We will discuss how these two diets compare, and how to educate our staff to recognize and/or test foods to ensure the diet and liquid standards are met. New products that match the IDDSI levels will be introduced and reviewed. Many times, the patient and/or family reject the diet modification recommendations. Some facilities offer waivers, which are not recognized by the courts. Better options we implement are the Shared Decision-Making Algorithm and The Care Planning for Resident Choice.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

Course Instructor(s)


Denise Dougherty

MA, CCC-SLP

Denise Dougherty, MA, CCC-SLP
Denise owns and operates a private practice in Indiana, PA, where she conducts therapy with both children and adults. She is a legal consultant/expert witness in wrongful death/negligence lawsuits involving dysphagia. Denise is a co-editor of Private Practice Essentials: A Practical Guide for Speech-Language Pathologists, published by ASHA Press. She has presented workshops and written numerous articles appearing in the ASHA Leader on the topic of private practice. Denise served as a consultant for The Arijah Children’s Foundation in Anguilla, BWI, providing evaluations and therapy programs for special needs children. Ms. Dougherty was an adjunct faculty member at York College of Pennsylvania and Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. She is a past President of the American Academy of Private Practice in Speech Pathology and Audiology (AAPPSPA), and received the Academy’s 2007 Honor Award and 2014 Award of Excellence for her achievements. Ms. Dougherty is a member of the Technical Experts Panel for Quality of Insights of Pennsylvania, working on initiating quality measures for CMS to improve effectiveness, efficiency, economy and quality of services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. She received her bachelor’s degree in communication disorders from Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania; a master’s degree in communication disorders from St. Louis University. Ms. Dougherty is certified in VitalStim® therapy and is a VitalStim® instructor, has completed additional training in orofacial myology, is a member of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association and has received numerous ASHA ACE Awards. For more information, please visit www.dldspeechpath.com.

Financial Disclosure Denise receives honoraria from CIAO for the presentation of her live courses and royalties for the sale of her online courses. Denise is in private practice and receives legal consultant/expert witness fees
Non-Financial Disclosure: There are no non-financial relationships to disclose.

Course Agenda

45 Minutes
Dentition, role of specific teeth and bite force
45 Minutes
Oral hygiene and impact on patients’ health
45 Minutes
Guidelines for oral hygiene – natural teeth, dentures and the edentulous individual
40 Minutes
Dysphagia and impact of dentition
30 Minutes
Diet selection and role of dentition
40 Minutes
IDDSI guidelines for foods, liquids and testing procedures
40 Minutes
Decision Making Options to utilize for resident choice
15 Minutes
Q&A
5.0 Hours
Total

Contact hours pre-approved for:

  • 5.0 Hours
  • CIAO is an ASHA Approved Provider #AAWA (0.5 ASHA CEUs) bubble sheet submission required
  • CIAO is an AOTA Approved Provider #4119 (0.5 AOTA CEUs)
  • This course meets PDU requirements for NBCOT (0.5 PDUs)
  • As an IACET Accredited Provider, CIAO offers CEUs for its programs that qualify under the ANSI/IACET Standard
  • CIAO is authorized by IACET to offer 0.5 CEUs for this program
  • CIAO is an Approved Provider for the Florida Board of Occupational Therapy
  • Approved for:
  • 6 Hours OT/COTAs in FL (CE Broker #20-778512)

The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.


Introductory Level
0.5 ASHA CEUs


CIAO Automatically reports to CE Broker for Florida Occupational and Physical Therapists and Assistants. Florida SLPs can either use the ASHA CE Participant Form (Bubble Sheet) or self-submit through CE Broker.


CIAO is recognized on the NBCOT Provider Registry (meets PDU requirements for NBCOT)