I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and your time of relaxation with friends and family was all you expected.  I was in Tennessee visiting my in-laws and naturally stuffed myself with more food than I should have.  I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy sitting down to a good meal.  There were many people who enjoyed friends and family, but unfortunately eating was more of a burden than a joy.  I see people all of the time that have difficulty and pain when they sit down for meals because of a mouth that isn’t healthy.  Envision black teeth decayed and broken off at the gum line.  It isn’t easy for these people to eat.  Typically it happens slowly over time, but as I mentioned last week there is a growing population that has lost most of their teeth to a condition known as “meth mouth”.  Methamphetamine use has recently been identified as one of the most destructive substances/drugs to affect oral health in recent years.  Rampant decay occurs at an incredibly fast rate and can ruin a mouth in a short period of time.  Often times dentists are left with dismal choices when it comes to helping a meth user.  Often times within a year, our only choice is to extract all the teeth and give them full upper and lower dentures.

The dental decay is typically so bad that anyone can see the devastating destruction in a person’s mouth, but there are other signs you may observe in someone indicating he/she may be utilizing meth.  Behavioral descriptors of users often include the following:  signs of agitation, excited speech, increased sensitivity to noise, poor hygiene, possible auditory and visual hallucinations, impaired perception in thought processes, occasional episodes of sudden and violent behavior, a tendency to become compulsive, an increase in activity levels and decreased appetite.  Physiological descriptors of meth users include:  body odor (possibly a chemical smell), irregular heartbeats, chest pain, elevated temperature and excessive sweating, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, dry mouth, blurred vision, high blood pressure and dilated pupils.  They will often present with sores on their arms and face because they hallucinate that bugs are under their skin and scratch at the area until it bleeds.  If you know someone who utilizes these drugs or you see unexplained changes in someone you know, talk with them and encourage them to get help because the overall physical effects can be life threatening and the oral concerns can be devastating.  Now don’t go accusing everyone who is a little hyper and has a couple of cavities of being users of methamphetamines, but it could early intervention could prevent someone from going down a long and ugly road.

If you have more questions about methamphetamines, there are ample sites on the internet to acquire information.  Have a great week and good luck losing those pounds we’ve already added on for the holidays!