Photos by Morgan Crawford
The Siletz Diabetes Program and Siletz Tribal Housing Department Youth Services Program sponsored Summer
Sports Camps for children in grades four through eight on July 16-20. Activities held at the Siletz rec center and
Siletz Valley School included football, track, basketball, volleyball and basic wrestling/tumbling.
Above, left: Tyson Rilatos
Below: Bobby Butler
Below, left: Xander Sweat and Robbie Kirkland
Photo by Diane Rodriquez
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Isabella Christensen and Rod Cross
Tooth Talk: Oral health impact of meth use includes poor hygiene, decay
By Mary Ellen Volansky, EPDH, MS
OK, so the oral health problems of
methamphetamine use may not be an
overwhelming motivator for not using
meth. Oral health problems may not be
a huge motivator for discontinuing one’s
use of meth. Still, the impact of metham
phetamine use on oral health is one that
will last beyond surviving meth use.
Meth has many names: ice, crystal,
speed, glass, tweak, rock, yuba and
more. Meth can be taken in tablet form
by mouth, nasally by snorting the powder
form, smoking the crystalline form and/or
through injection - meth easily dissolves
in water or alcohol.
One last comment on meth use -
approximately 10 million people in the
United States have tried methamphet
amine at least once.1
Meth use negatively impacts a per
son’s oral heath in three ways: poor oral
hygiene, bruxism and acid erosion. One
meth user, a 39-year-old male, stated
that during a binge (one year) of using
methamphetamine, he reported remaining
awake for 7-10 days before crashing and
sleeping for 48 hours or more.2
As much as I believe in and support
daily oral care, I still can imagine that
someone on such a binge is not likely to
brush let alone floss - and least of all not
while sleeping for two days.
Bruxism doesn’t even sound like
something related to dental, but it is.
Bruxism is the word used to describe
when someone clenches or grinds their
teeth together. Clenching is tightly hold
ing your top and bottom teeth together.
Grinding is the sliding back and forth or
side to side of our upper and lower teeth
against each other.
The result of either of these activi
ties, clenching or grinding, is flattening
and shortening of teeth. Other symptoms
of clenching or grinding can arise, such
as headaches, jaw or temporomandibular
joint (TMJ) pain, earaches and hot/cold
or sweet sensitivity.
Meth users are not the only people to
clench or grind their teeth; many of us do
it, even in our sleep. But we don’t usually
grind and clench so severely nor in such
a short period of time.
The last impact of meth on oral health
is probably the one that is the most vis
ible - decay. The pattern of severe decay
seen with long-standing meth users is
characteristic. As mentioned earlier, meth
dissolves easily in water or in this case
the water inside our mouths - saliva. It’s
this acid saliva that erodes the enamel to
eventually make holes in it.
Smoking meth is the worst for caus
ing this type of destruction. Lift the upper
lip and look at the enamel near the gum
line of the front teeth. With enough meth
use, there will be crescents of enamel
breakdown. Sometimes there is only
demineralization (white crescents); some
times the hole becomes black inside.
Where does this leave a person in
recovery? A person who wants to have
healthy teeth for the rest of his or her
life? Where is anyone who wants to have
healthy teeth for the rest of their life?
Come in for an exam, get X-rays. In
other words, let the dentist take a look and
advise you on what can help.
Tell us of your concerns about your
mouth, about any anxiety you may have
for being in the dental office or a dental
chair. Let us know of any tooth, gum
or jaw pain. We want to help make oral
health a reality and we want getting there
to be easy and comfortable.
1
2
cdeworld.com/course/4463-methamphet-
amine-oral-effects-and-treatment, p. 1
Holt, Emily. RDH, MHA, CDA and Werner,
Sara, LCH, DS, An Inclusive Dental Hygiene
Case of a Recovered Methamphetamine
Addict, April 2012, vol. 26. No. 4. p. 18.
August 2012
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Siletz News
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