METH USE CAUSES TEETH TO CRUMBLE

[Alfa]

METH USE CAUSES TEETH TO CRUMBLE

Jeffery Lotshaw flossed regularly. He brushed faithfully, sometimes
four or five times in a day.

All that care makes his condition seem incomprehensible - at the age
of just 33, Lotshaw's grin is toothless. His teeth all broke apart,
tarnished with yellow and black.

"Before I started doing meth, I didn't have a cavity in my head," said
Lotshaw, imprisoned on drug charges at Missouri's Maryville Treatment
Center.

The growing use of highly addictive methamphetamine throughout the
country is creating a prominent scar on an increasing number of users
- rotting, brittle teeth that seem to crumble. Methamphetamine can be
made with a horrid mix of substances, including over-the-counter cold
medicine, fertilizer, battery acid and hydrogen peroxide. Together,
the chemicals reduce a user's saliva, which neutralizes acids and
physically clears food from the teeth, said Dr. Eric Curtis, an
Arizona-based spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry.

"When the saliva isn't flowing, the bacteria build up a lot faster,"
said Dr. Darrell Morton, an Atlanta dentist.

Meth users also may neglect their teeth, or moisten their dry mouths
with high-sugar drinks, and anxiety caused by the drug prompts them to
grind their teeth, which speeds decay.

The problem is particularly noticeable among inmates, whose oral
problems have some prison systems struggling to provide dental care.

On site, not in print-

"They're rotting teeth, missing teeth, rotting way into the gums,"
said Kathy Bachmeier, the head of medical services for North Dakota's
prisons. "It's ugly."

There are no statistics on "meth mouth" - as the condition has come to
be known - because addicts are sometimes reluctant to admit their drug
use and because it is difficult to distinguish between damage done by
bad dental hygiene and that caused by narcotics. But there are signs
it is on the rise around the country.

The head of the company in charge of dental care for Missouri inmates
says he is seeing teeth rotted by meth use nearly every day. In North
Dakota, the number of days a dentist was serving inmates jumped from
50 in 2000 to 78 in 2004. And the tab for inmates' dental care in
Minnesota rose from $1.2 million five years ago to about $2 million
last year.

"There are more and more urgent care needs, which pushes back routine
care like cleanings," said Nanette Schroeder, director of health
services for Minnesota's Corrections Department. "They're seeing just
worse mouths, generally. This is really an emerging problem."

Missouri pays a company $7.50 per day per prisoner for health care,
regardless of what's needed, so no major cost increase has been incurred.

"My dentists always opt for the best treatment we could offer our
patients, as we would in private practice," said Dr. Ernest Jackson,
whose Jefferson City-based company is in charge of dental care for
Missouri prisons.

But that philosophy isn't necessarily at play everywhere.

Schroeder said there's a constant juggling act between constitutional
obligations to inmates, costs and the risk of lawsuits.

"Do we always think that it's fair to provide some services to our
offender population that people on the outside might not get? Of
course not," Schroeder said. "On the other hand, we have to balance
that with the risk."

Bryan Rogers, another inmate at the Maryville facility, which is
exclusively for convicts with drug problems, said he noticed other
users' teeth were rotting but made sure he brushed regularly.

"I was always thinking that's not going to happen to me because I keep
brushing," he said.

Rogers, 30, has had three teeth pulled since arriving at the prison in
August, and he's awaiting a dental plate. Lotshaw's last 11 teeth have
been removed since arriving, also in August, and he's waiting for dentures.

Lotshaw has been drug-free for more than five months, but there's no
denying what is to blame for his empty mouth.

"It reminds me a lot of my addiction," he said.

[poweredbyhate]

Ewww. I've seen pictures of tweakers with rotting teeth and scabs
on their faces, and it's pretty gross. Meth mouth sounds like a
pretty bad side effect of using speed.

[Peyote]

That's awfull...Speed is a mean mofo..

[enquirewithin]

"Speed makes your hair fall out and your teeth rot--" is this part of the speed mythos or fact?


Manyamphetamine addicts(and opiate addcits) lack teeth especially, but many long time users still have average-condition teeth. Is there a provable causal connection between meth and loss of teeth, or is it more that meth users tend to neglect oral hygiene?

[tweakerfrommars]

Read the article. Loss of salival flow leading to buildup of bacteria. My best friend had the same thing happen to him, and his oral hygiene habits weremore than sufficient. Fortunately his mouth doesn't look so bad because he has a front row denture and the rest of his teeth are gone...so there's really nothing left rotting in there.

[tweakerfrommars]

And also teethgrinding. Obviously bacterial buildup and rate of decay isn't going to be the same for everyone, especially if an addict doesn't use everyday. It's not hard at all to maintain oral hygiene (I know this from former personal experience and discussing with other meth users), and in fact many userswork especially hard to maintain self-cleanliness, because the personal deterioration and also the paranoia of longterm meth use can severely determine one's self-image (and therefore, self-confidence), so maintaining cleanliness is a way to avoid that feeling. Of course not everyone follows good hygiene and becomes so absorbed with whatever they are doing that they forget to brush their teeth or take baths regularly.

[enquirewithin]

However, long-time users with can have reasonable teeth. The article says this: "Methamphetamine can be made with a horrid mix of substances, including over-the-counter cold medicine, fertilizer, battery acid and hydrogen peroxide </font>together, the chemicals reduce a user's saliva, which neutralizes acids and
physically clears food from the teeth, said Dr. Eric Curtis...." I am not sure this is very scientific. </font>

[Sitbcknchill]

Also the lack of eating and getting the proper nutrients play a huge factor in your body degrading into nothing. Best advice would be is to take care of your teeth...you know a thing called brushing....and to stay away from sugar filled drinks and such while on meth. Another tip would be if your not going to force yourself to eat at least take a good variety of vitamins to replenish your body. Sorry for the spelling but get over it.