What adaptations and equipment can help with personal hygiene and grooming after a spinal cord injury?

With oral care and personal hygiene, we’re looking at -- do they need a special toothbrush? Is it easier to use an electric toothbrush versus a standard one? An electric one you can hold at your mouth and just move around versus a standard toothbrush—you’re just sitting there scrubbing. We look at do they need an adaptive piece of equipment to hold the toothbrush? When we get to hair-care, and make up and facial care that’s where we get very specific with what the person wants. If someone wants to be able to put on their makeup, is it a matter of opening the containers that they may need an adaptation for? Do they need a special brush to have them apply the makeup? With hair care—do they need an adaptive brush that is easier for them to be able to reach their head and to be able to comb their hair? If someone doesn’t have the finger movement, for example for a woman to be able to put her hair in a pony tail, do we start looking at alternate hairstyles? There’s so much that goes into it, but ultimately it’s based on what the person wants to be able to do and we look at the equipment that can support them in doing that.

When I think about equipment that helps people, let’s say sink-side grooming activities, I think of a standard universal cuff, or an electric toothbrush with an easy on/off switch for that person to hit. When I think of applying makeup, you can actually use thermoplastic. And thermoplastic is a moldable material that you can make splints out of, but you can use it a lot of other ways to make different makeup accessible for that person.