Side-Effects: Medications And Oral Health

Medical problems are things none of us ask for but many of us have, and with medical problems come medications.

Unfortunately, along with medications come side-effects, and these often have a negative impact on oral health.

The Delicate Balance Of Our Mouths

Our oral health does best when our mouths can stay close to a neutral pH — neither acidic nor basic. The food and drink we consume tends to temporarily disrupt this pH balance, and so does medicine. When children eat chewable vitamins or drink syrupy medicine that contains sugar, it feeds their oral bacteria, which excrete acid onto their teeth. This acid wears away at their tooth enamel.

Another common problem with children’s medication comes from asthma inhalers, which can lead to the development of oral thrush (white fungus patches in the mouth). The easiest way to avoid any of these issues is to encourage our children to rinse with water after eating vitamins, using their inhalers, or drinking cough syrup.

Oral Side-Effects Of Medications

Even if the medication doesn’t do any damage while you’re ingesting it, it can still be harmful to your mouth over time, so let’s look at some of the side-effects that might show up after starting a new medication.

• Dry Mouth. This is the most common oral side-effect of over-the-counter and prescribed medications. Our saliva is our first line of defense against bad oral bacteria, and when it dries up, it leaves us vulnerable to tooth decay and gum disease.
• Abnormal bleeding. Some medications contain blood thinning components, and this makes it easier for us to bleed. If you start noticing more bleeding from your gums after brushing, it could be because of the medication.
• Inflamed gums. Gingival overgrowth (or excessive growth of gum tissue) is a side-effect of several medications, and it increases the risk of gum disease.
• Change in taste. Heart medications, nervous system stimulants, and anti-inflammatory drugs can leave a bitter or metallic taste in your mouth or interfere with your sense of taste in general. While unpleasant, this side-effect isn’t necessarily serious.
• Bone loss. In rare cases, drugs used to treat osteoporosis can cause a loss of bone tissue in the jaw, putting patients at risk of tooth loss and gum recession.

Video Transcript

Helping make your life easier, moms every day. Good morning, I’m Katie Kunkel. Did you know that both the prescription and non-prescription medications you are taking could potentially be affecting your dental health? Dr. John Tessendorf of the Dental Health Center in Eau Claire is joining us this morning to explain how these medications can cause a dry mouth, which can wreak havoc on your teeth and gums.

Good morning, Dr. Tessendorf.

Good morning, Katie, how are you?

Good, thank you. So how does dry mouth affect a person’s dental health?

It increases the bacteria count in the mouth, Katie. And so at the end of the day, a person is supposed to swallow 2,000 times a day. The person develops enough saliva, and it’s a cleansing action when we swallow. But what happens is when we have dry mouth, we don’t swallow enough and our teeth don’t get cleansed.

Very interesting. So what types of medications can cause dry mouth?

A number of medications, both prescription and non-prescription medications. Antihistamines are a big culprit, for example.

Okay. And does anything else cause dry mouth besides medications?

There’s different syndromes, Sjogren’s syndromes, Parkinson’s disease, acne medications, for example.

All right. So what can be done to combat the negative effects of dry mouth?

Different things, Katie, like you can take biotin. There’s lozenges that you get into the drugstores that help your body produce natural saliva, as well as drinking little sips of water all day long.

Okay, very interesting. Well, thank you for the good information this morning, Dr. Tesendorf. Thank you, Katie. And to learn even more, please visit weau.com and click on Moms Every Day.

You will find more information in the Health section under Adult Dentistry. Get more from momseveryday.com. Select Western Wisconsin.

Your Dentist Can Help!

No matter what medication you take on a regular basis, whether prescription or over-the-counter, it’s critical that your dentist knows about them. Sometimes, the oral health side-effects can be minimized or stopped, but only if the dentist knows! So if you’re taking medications, especially if you’ve noticed any of the above problems, make sure to mention them during your next dental appointment!

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