Is it just people on meth tend to neglect dental care and don’t floss/brush? Or is there actually a chemical in meth that causes your teeth to go bad?
In: 73
I was born with soft teeth, never really took care of them through my childhood and into adulthood, grind my teeth in my sleep, love sweets, was prescribed adderall from a very young age (idk if affected my dental health!) And then when I was 20 I broke my jaw, I have now 11 teeth and 9/10 people i meet think im a meth head even tho id never touch the stuff. Being poor in america is hard sometimes. Not really an explanation just a different situation with compounding factors leading to one fucked up mouth
Severe dry mouth, prolonged grinding, excessive sugar consumption (mainly soda), and lack of any hygiene care. Also the meth covers up any pain in the early stages of tooth breakdown so addicts go far longer than average before they seek out care.
RDH here. There are MANY reasons meth is harmful to teeth, but I’ll list 3. Often times there’re acidic ingredients in meth (street meth that is, not the pure compound), which leads to weakened enamel and cavities. In addition, meth causes dry mouth, which creates a more hospitable environment for cavities to happen. Also, people who use meth tend to neglect their oral hygiene (and often drink Mountain Dew and energy drinks – not sure why this is), which sets them up for… cavities. The typical “meth mouth” is just a mouth full of erosion (acid wear and teeth grinding) and cavities.
Doctor here.
“Meth mouth”, or poor teeth due to methampheatmine abuse is caused by multiple reasons. The most important is likely because methamphetamine causes dry mouth, or xerostomia. The lack of fluid in the mouth results in any acids, sugars, bacteria from the food we eat and the environment not being washed off and sitting on the teeth for long periods. These directly break down enamel. This is similar to why lots of babies who drink milk all hours of the day get lots of cavities. The sugars are constantly sitting on the enamel and are food for the normal bacteria in the mouth, letting them overgrow and chew threw the enamel.
There is also contribution from a known “grinding” of the jaw methamphetamine abusers do. This causes the actual chipping and wearing down of the teeth after they’re made more fragile.
Dentist here. Probably mostly the former, but there are some indirect ways in which the pharmacological effects of meth contribute to tooth decay. In no particular order, here are the ways in which meth is thought to mess with your teeth:
1) Decrease in salivary pH and buffering capacity (ability to neutralize acids from the stuff you eat and drink).
2) Bruxism – meth seems to stimulate clenching and grinding activity, which can wear away enamel and expose dentin. Dentin is even more vulnerable to acid erosion than enamel.
3) Poor hygiene – this isn’t particular to meth; many drug addicts seem to let everyday tasks like hygiene (along with pretty much every other facet of their lives) slip by the wayside.
4) Junk food diet – frequent snacking with high caloric density/sugary foods and soda (as opposed to 3 discrete meals per day) drastically increases the amount of time in the day one’s teeth are exposed to an acidic environment, which in turn dissolves enamel and dentin.
5) Reduced salivary flow rate/dry mouth or “xerostomia” – again, saliva protects your teeth by acting as a pH buffer against environmental acids and through the presence of salivary antibodies and other immune components that keep oral bacterial/fungal populations in check. It’s unclear whether this is a direct pharmacologic effect of methamphetamines or whether it’s a secondary effect of dehydration.
There’s a lot of misinformation you’ll hear people spouting about how toxic meth is as evidenced by the way it eats away at your teeth and your skin, but that’s all just chemophobia. Theoretically, a meth addict could keep excellent dental health by maintaining good oral hygiene habits, drinking water frequently, avoiding junk food, and wearing an occlusal splint (to protect the teeth from being worn down by the grinding). Of course, what meth addict is really going to do all of that?
Also not sure if it was said: meth users tend to breath through their mouth and not their nose (esp. When they’re asleep). This dries out the mouth and the lack of saliva rots the teeth… Apparently
To add to everything here, withdrawal will also cause vomiting, and combined with lack of oral care, adds to the tooth decay. I know my brother would be in and out of withdrawal and he would vomit all over the floor, pass out without rinsing his mouth out, wake up, repeat. It destroyed his teeth within a few years (and my mom’s floor.)
It’s almost 100% neglect. *almost*
But meth is also super acidic. It isn’t so horrible on teeth, but it’s really bad for you gums, and keeps you from salivating properly, so your dry ass mouth and whack ass gums stay dry and dirty and acid soaked and combined with the neglect, leads to what we call meth mouth. Once the gums are receding and the teeth are eaten by bacteria (usually regularly washed away with saliva then teeth brushing), they get super fragile and can break from grinding or even just chewing.
People who don’t understand acidity or dental care will tell you that it’s not bad for your teeth at all and neglect is the ONLY reason, but neglect alone does not result in the rapid deterioration you get from meth use, and even short term use and staying on top of daily brushing can still do a real number on your teeth for the rest of your life.
Dentist here. Mainly the first, people on meth have terrible hygiene; however, meth also screws with salivary glands reducing the saliva that acts as natural lubricant keeping food from sticking to your teeth. This along with lack of brushing becomes the perfect storm to having caries run rampant and create decay is the most complicated areas of the the teeth to fix (the neck of the tooth). We recently had a patient in his mid 20s that needed either crowns/root canals on every tooth or full mouth extractions with full upper and lower dentures.
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16355653/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6100769/
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