Care Plan help: Pt missing all teeth

[spaghetina]

My apologies if this sounds like a silly/stupid question, but I'm in the midst of writing my first care plan, and am at a loss as to how to properly word that my patient was missing all of his teeth. We haven't covered any of this terminology in any of my classes, and writing "No teeth," while accurate, doesn't seem very professional.

Since he was an extremely poor historian due to his ALOC and aphasia, there was no way to ascertain whether the tooth loss was congenital or if it had something to do with decades of alcohol/substance abuse.

Any ideas how to phrase the condition so that it's clear, but professional? Absence of all adult dentition? No dentition? No presence of adult teeth? Toofless? (Kidding! )

Thanks in advance!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I always believe that plain English works well. I used to hate it when my students used "ambulate" and "verbalize" when "walk" and "talk" would work just fine.

However, the word you seek is "edentulous." :)

[NurseNightOwl, BSN, RN]

I actually LOL'd at toofless.

[spaghetina]

Thanks, GrnTea! I hate having to use words like that too, but my professors seem to eat it up. Plain English is so much easier to comprehend for EVERYONE involved.

[spaghetina]

I actually LOL'd at toofless.

It certainly gets the point across, doesn't it? LOL.