Lots of addicts have missing teeth, is it from the drugs themselves or just bad hygiene/no dental care? If it’s the drugs, what’s in the drugs that makes people lose their teeth?
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Hard street drugs like crack and crystal meth are smoked and inhaled to get the effects quickly and cheaply. Those kind of drugs are strong enough to have necrotizing effects on the gums and even the teeth themselves from exposure as they are being inhaled.
Meth in particular causes a significant reduction in saliva production. Saliva protects the teeth because the constant movement, swishing, and swallowing helps stop the bacteria to clinging to the teeth.
This is anecdotal but for opioids, like heroine, causes cravings for sugar and the sugar promotes tooth decay.
Edit: changed salvia back to saliva
Skipping the “5yo” explanation for obvious reasons.
Calcium makes your bones strong, and hard drugs make your teeth weak.
The reason why is because your body binds toxins to calcium to filter it and when it can’t find the calcium it leeches it from your body. So not just the teeth but bones too so drug users become sickly and succumb to injuries that are sometimes caused by damage to their bone marrow systems which is where fresh blood is made. In addition smoking poisons the mouth and coats it with toxic residue which kills the gums and sinus cavities. It causes necrosis and inflammation which helps to loosen the tooth and weaken the roots of the teeth. So as a person continues to expose themselves to the toxins the teeth begin to become most necrotic and then they die.
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