[Dysphagia] induced coma and teeth coming loose

[bonnieh4455 at sbcglobal.net (Bonnie Heintskill)]

I have a patient I just started seeing. She had a pituitary gland tumor surgery, which was aborted when an artery got nicked.  Long story short, she was in and out of hospital several times. the last hospitalization she was put in a coma by medications. She came out of the coma and had to have extensive therapies.  She asked me yesterday if I knew coma could have caused ALL her teeth to come loose. I had not heard of this happening before.  I did advise her to consume a soft diet for now so as not to break any teeth or cause further damage.

She can read but has difficulty writing with her dominant hand. The OT thought it might be agraphia but she can laboriusly copy shapes - very shakey and time consuming. I tried her with a different grip on the pen and that helped.

Thanks in advance for any help on the tooth matter!