Spit Swap

A lot of patients I take care of are intubated. This is a tube in their throat connected to a machine that breathes for them.  We always take out patient's dentures during this procedure so we can visualize their airway and to keep them from biting on the tube. They are sedated and unable to communicate. When they are ready to breathe on their own, we wake them up and remove the tube.

I will never forget this patient.... we woke them up and took out their breathing tube. When they were ready to eat we searched the room for their dentures with no success. Upon further investigation we realized they were never brought to the hospital and they were still at the nursing home the patient came from.

An employee from the nursing home was nice enough to bring the patient's dentures to the hospital. I cleaned the dentures and placed them in the patient's mouth. I immediately noticed something looked strange as the dentures protruded through his lips like horse teeth as the patient struggled to close their mouth around them. The patient smacked their lips, moved their tongue around, and attempted to get the dentures to seal on the gums. The porcelain dentures clinked around in the patient's mouth, but no amount of manipulation could get the dentures to fit right. The patient looked at us with a very confused and disgusted look and held out one finger in the air. Still a bit groggy and loopy from the medication they said, "I have one question for you.... Where did you get these teeth?" I could not contain my laughter as it was apparent to everyone in the room that the nursing home sent the wrong set of dentures. Luckily the patient had a good laugh too.