Health

Tips for Choosing Home Health Care

Posted by Cindy Barera on in Health

The need for home health care occurs for many reasons. Sometimes, it’s because people choose to age in place but need a little extra help at home. Other times, someone needs an unexpected surgery and requires help during the recovery process. Regardless of your reason for hiring a home health agency, it is important to choose the right one. This tips and tricks will help you find exactly what you need.

Determine What Services You Need

Some companies that call themselves home health care providers only do non-medical duties in reality. Others offer full-service medical staff. Before you hire an agency, you must determine what you need. If you or a loved one is aging in place, you may only need someone who can help with meal preparation and cooking, cleaning and laundry, transportation to appointments, and medication reminders. However, if someone is entering hospice care or requires medical care related to surgery recovery, you likely need full-service medical staff who can write prescriptions, perform medical procedures, and help with physical therapy tasks.

Consider the Staff’s Training

Regardless of the type of care you require, you want to be sure the staff is professional and well-trained. Ask the agency how long it’s been in business and whether it’s insured and bonded. You should also consider whether it has a specialty service, if the license is up to date, how it determines who to hire, and whether staff receives any ongoing training.

Think About Payment Options

Payment options are often one of the most important determining factors when choosing home health agencies Bethesda MD. Naturally, you’ll want to know how much the service costs per month or year, but you’ll also want to ask about payment options. Ensure the agency accepts Medicare, Medicaid, or veteran’s benefits, if applicable. It is also important to determine if it accepts your insurance and if there are flexible payment plans if you are paying out of pocket.

Pay attention to your gut as you interview home health agencies. If something feels off, it probably is. Always interview at least three places t ensure you know what your options are and compare prices.

Sedation Dentistry: Taking the Anxiety Out of the Dentist

Posted by Cindy Barera on in Health

A trip to the dentist can be nerve-wracking for a patient, but with oral sedation dentistry courses, a dentist is able to learn techniques to make the experience easier. Read on to learn about the types of sedation available for dental procedures and the benefits for both patient and dentist.

Types of Sedation Available

When thinking about sedation at the dentist, many people imagine an injection directly into the gums. This technique, also known as local anesthesia, injects a numbing drug directly into the area where the dentist will work. While still a commonly used anesthesia technique, patients are numb, but they are also fully conscious of what is happening at all times. For an anxious patient, this may not be the best option, and sedation dentistry may be necessary. Sedation dentistry removes a certain level of consciousness so that the patient is not fully aware of what is occurring inside their mouths. The sedation can be given to a patient in multiple routes including:

  • Injection directly into the bloodstream
  • Inhalation of anesthetic gasses
  • Ingestion of sedative pills

Benefits of Sedation Dentistry

The main benefit of sedation dentistry is patient comfort. Along with decreasing their overall anxiety, sedation can alleviate a nervous patient’s gag reflex. A gag reflex is a normal response to the pressure felt at the back of the mouth, but this can cause difficulty for a dentist to effectively perform their tasks, making the process longer for both dentist and patient. Another benefit of sedation dentistry is the ability to better control patient pain. Most drugs used for sedation are also useful in providing pain relief and continue to work even after a patient is conscious.

With sedation dentistry, dentists can perform complicated tasks in a shorter amount of time, allowing for fewer visits for a patient. By increasing dentist efficiency and decreasing patient anxiety, sedation dentistry can provide a nervous patient with a more pleasant dental experience.

Benefits of Using a Birthing Center

Posted by Cindy Barera on in Health

When a woman first finds out she is expecting a baby she has a lot of different decisions to make about the care she receives prenatally and the care she wishes to have during her labor and delivery. One option is the use of a birthing center for prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum services. Here are three reasons a woman might want to consider using a birthing center San Antonio as her source of support for pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum services.

Mother and Baby Focus

Birthing centers allow mothers to make decisions about their labor and delivery experience and fully allow women to utilize their birth plan with compassionate and competent support and care from a team of midwives. There are a lot of different options for women in labor to make in terms of the positions they utilize during labor, the tools and supports available throughout labor, and the people they want as part of the labor and delivery process.

Home-Like Setting

Giving birth is a very intimate process and a birthing center allows a woman to have access to modern technology and medical care but in a setting that resembles a home. Birthing suites in centers often look like a welcoming bedroom in a home with a comfortable bed and furniture, soaking tubs, and a private bathroom. The birth suites are private and allow any number of support people in the room with the woman who is laboring.

Comprehensives Services

Because birthing centers typically support natural labor and delivery with as minimal of interventions as possible, there may be an assumption they are not safe or helpful in more complex pregnancies. This is untrue as birthing centers have relationships with traditional OBGYNs and hospitals in case a mother needs more medical care. Birthing centers have access to labs, sonograms, and other equipment needed to ensure mother and baby are safe and progressing well. They also provide a full range of pre-natal appointments and services and postpartum services such as lactation consultation, home visits, and counseling.

Choosing the Best Adult Foster Care For Your Loved One

Posted by Cindy Barera on in Health

With the United States facing an increasing elderly population, senior care is a growing industry. Most people think of nursing homes and assisted living facilities for adults who can no longer live independently. However, a growing number of individuals are electing to stay at their home or in a home-like environment. In order to cater to this group, companies are coming up with creative ways, such as adult foster care, to ensure senior needs are met.

What is Adult Foster Care?

Adult foster care is meant for individuals who need assistance with daily tasks. A foster care worker can help in many different capacities, such as eating, bathing or moving from one room to another. The worker is not a health care professional, but rather a person who lives in the same house or apartment to offer help when needed.

How do You Choose a Provider?

It’s important to do some research before choosing an adult foster care company. For example, you could do an internet search for “adult foster care service Massachusetts,” but what is the best way to sort through the results? The biggest priority is the safety of both the patient and caregiver. Therefore, you should find a company that performs criminal background checks on all parties who will be living under the same roof. It should work closely with the patient’s doctor or nurse to make sure the patient is a good candidate for this type of assistance. Check online reviews and schedule a meeting with a representative to have all questions answered.

Why Choose Adult Foster Care?

In many cases, particularly elderly patients with dementia, confusion causes stress on family members and the patient. Home-like environments are more calming. In some cases, the patient can stay in his or her home, making the transition seamless.

Seniors now have many more choices than in the past. For individuals who need assistance, adult foster care is a viable alternative to traditional nursing homes or assisted living facilities. A well-researched decision will give you peace of mind that your family member is in good hands.

Emergency Dental Care Saves Smiles One Tooth at a Time

Posted by Cindy Barera on in Health

There is a common misconception when it comes to teeth that if they don’t hurt and are still intact, there is nothing to worry about. While on the surface, a person’s teeth may look and feel fine, there are so many things that could be going on underneath the surface and gums that can lead to serious problems at any time.

Most dental emergency situations don’t just develop overnight. A few instances of pain here and there are often ignored until the pain and discomfort become chronic. Sometimes, the issues could result in damage to the enamel or overall structure of a tooth. Regardless of what problems arise, it’s important not to let them persist for too long. It’s a good idea to have an emergency dentistry Windsor Terrace in mind before they are needed.

Prevents Serious Dental Problems From Becoming Worse

Knowing when to go to an emergency dentist instead of waiting for an appointment with a regular one is important and can mean the difference between losing and saving a tooth. Emergency dentists are no strangers to treating abscesses, chipped and broken teeth, painful and sensitive gums and other issues where the discomfort starts to interfere with one’s ability to eat, sleep and function normally.

Reasons Why People Choose Emergency Dental Care

Most people do not put off seeing a dentist for their teeth because of busy schedules. Usually, there is some kind of reluctance, anxiety or fear about not knowing what to expect. There is also speculation that tooth removal is the only solution and that all emergency dental treatments involve more discomfort.

Not all emergency dental work involves pain and the loss of an ability to eat. The sooner proper treatment is given, the better the prognosis for recovery. There is also less risk of infections spreading to other teeth.