Dental health problems are more common than you think. Nearly 3.5 billion people are affected by oral disease worldwide. This is a troubling statistic. In the U.S. alone, over 40% of adults report having felt pain in their mouth in 2022.
Sipping carbonated drinks frequently, poor oral hygiene, and snacking on sugary treats can cause dental issues. But a lesser-known culprit of dental problems is medicines.
You’d argue that medicines help fight illnesses and improve health. Sure, they do, but dozens of medicines affect the mouth as well as gums, leading to dry mouth and other dental problems.
Here, we’ll discuss some common medicines that affect your dental health.
Medicines that you often take to relieve symptoms of allergies, such as hives, hay fever, reactions to stings or insect bites, and conjunctivitis, are antihistamines. This class of drugs also treats nausea and prevents motion sickness. Sometimes, antihistamines are a short-term treatment for insomnia.
Antihistamines help relieve allergy symptoms, but they link with a higher risk of tooth decay and infection. These medicines provide relief from allergies by blocking histamine receptors. Eventually, the salivary flow is decreased. This results in a dry mouth, wreaking havoc on your oral health.
Zyrtec, Allegra, Claritin, and Benadryl, to name a few, are antihistamines that can reduce saliva production. Continuing dryness of the mouth increases the possibility of developing dental disease. These include gum disease, tooth decay, and fungal infections.
Bad breath is also a result of dry mouth. Saliva, from the salivary glands, kills germs that cause bad breath. However, since antihistamines inhibit saliva production, the bacteria doesn't wash away, leading to bad breath.
Opioid partial agonists, such as buprenorphine, can cause dental problems. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns users about the same.
Buprenorphine, approved by the FDA in 2002, is used in the treatment of opioid use disorder. Patients place this tablet under the tongue, where it dissolves.
However, in a 2022 release, the FDA informed people that there have been reports of dental issues with buprenorphine-containing medicines that dissolve in the mouth. Patients report a loss of teeth, oral infections, cavities, and tooth decay, including with those with no history of dental issues using such medicines.
A popular medication used to treat opioid use disorder is Suboxone. This medicine– a combination of buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist, and naloxone, an opioid antagonist– works in the brain to reduce a patient’s dependency on opioids and prevent opioid misuse. Millions of Americans have recovered from opioids using Suboxone.
Sublingual buprenorphine and naloxone are acidic in nature, however. That means Suboxone sublingual films and tablets are highly acidic and can weaken tooth enamel. The acid in the medicine softens the tooth enamel, which makes the teeth susceptible to bacteria and decay.
An Ohio man, David Sorensen, has a Suboxone lawsuit for teeth damage, claiming that the high acidic content in the medicine caused tooth decay and permanent dental damage. He isn’t the only one; countless people have a Suboxone tooth decay lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs allege that manufacturers failed to warn patients about the risk of tooth decay and other dental issues associated with the use of the medicine. Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc., Aquestive Therapeutics Inc., and Indivior Inc. are companies named in the lawsuits, notes TruLaw.
The unpleasant side effects of antidepressants aren’t just to do with sleep problems, weight gain, or nausea. You could also experience dental issues if you take antidepressants.
Individuals on antidepressant drugs often complain of xerostomia, i,e., dry mouth. This is a fairly common side effect of using antidepressants. An inadequate amount of saliva in the mouth is unable to neutralize plaque acids, which bacteria residing in the mouth produces. Thus, it increases a person’s risk of developing oral infections and tooth decay.
Users of tricyclic antidepressants have higher incidences of dry mouth than selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However, sleep bruxism is a side effect from SSRIs. This condition is characterized by grinding or gnashing of the teeth or clenching of the jaw while sleeping.
Therefore, medicines that give your smile back can cause damage to your pearly whites.
Putting it all together, plenty of things could contribute to dental issues, but some medications have side effects that affect oral health.
The above medicines disrupt saliva production and result in dry mouth, leading to tooth decay, gum disease, and other infections. Other than these three medicines, anticoagulants for heart attacks, gummy vitamins, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can affect your dental health.
When taking any of these medicines, increase your water intake. Drink at least eight to ten glasses of water daily. This will keep your mouth moist, preventing dry mouth. Be sure to floss regularly and brush your teeth twice daily. A biannual visit to the dentist is highly recommended. If you don't have a dentist yet, a quick internet search for something like "teeth whitening Staten Island NY" should already pull up a list of professionals that you can reach out to.
