{"id":394,"date":"2015-01-28T18:59:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T23:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/?p=394"},"modified":"2015-01-28T18:59:56","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T23:59:56","slug":"how-meth-affects-oral-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How meth affects oral health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health more than a million Americans abuse methamphetamine in a single year. The destructive physical effects of meth are devastating to teeth and gums.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin: 0 7px 5px 0px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-396\" src=\"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/massachusetts-meth-mouth.jpg\" alt=\"massachusetts-meth-mouth\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" \/><br \/>\nPhoto courtesy of American Dental Association<\/div>\n<p>Meth causes vomiting, which creates acid in the mouth; diarrhea, which dehydrates the body; and craving for sugar and junk food, which promotes further acid in the mouth. All of these factors contribute to a dry mouth, rob teeth of nutrients, and make the mouth a breeding ground for bacteria, plaque, and rapid tooth decay.<\/p>\n<p>Some reports also attribute tooth decay to corrosion caused by chemicals in the drug. When ingested, meth causes blood vessels to shrink, which decreases the blood supply in your mouth. The result is oral tissue that decays. Jawbone and gum tissue become too weak to support your teeth.<\/p>\n<p>As teeth rot and gum tissue and bone are destroyed, tooth loss is rampant. The picture on this page shows how devastating meth use can be. The degree of tooth loss does not necessarily coincide with how long a person has been using meth. In as few as four months, some users have teeth that have rotted to the roots.<\/p>\n<p>The picture on this page shows how damaging meth can be on teeth. While meth is still in use, teeth can be minimally protected with fluoride treatments. Patients should be encouraged to drink lots of water. But most importantly, professionally help is needed to help control the addiction.<\/p>\n<p>If a meth patient recovers, a skilled cosmetic dentist can make recommendations to prove natural-looking restorations for the patient\u2019s teeth. Depending on the condition of the teeth, dental crowns or dental implants can be used to restore them. An attractive smile can go a long way to make the patient feel renewed.<\/p>\n<p>This post is sponsored by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/\">Lowell, MA accredited cosmetic dentist<\/a> Dr. Michael Szarek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health more than a million Americans abuse methamphetamine in a single year. The destructive physical effects of meth are devastating to teeth and gums. Photo courtesy of American Dental Association Meth causes vomiting, which creates acid in the mouth; diarrhea, which dehydrates the body; and craving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[42,294,293],"class_list":{"0":"post-394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general-dentistry","7":"tag-lowell-cosmetic-dentist","8":"tag-meth-mouth","9":"tag-meth-teeth","10":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How meth affects oral health - Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How meth affects oral health - Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health more than a million Americans abuse methamphetamine in a single year. The destructive physical effects of meth are devastating to teeth and gums. Photo courtesy of American Dental Association Meth causes vomiting, which creates acid in the mouth; diarrhea, which dehydrates the body; and craving [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-28T23:59:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/massachusetts-meth-mouth.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AllSmiles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AllSmiles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How meth affects oral health - Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How meth affects oral health - Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","og_description":"According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health more than a million Americans abuse methamphetamine in a single year. The destructive physical effects of meth are devastating to teeth and gums. Photo courtesy of American Dental Association Meth causes vomiting, which creates acid in the mouth; diarrhea, which dehydrates the body; and craving [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/","og_site_name":"Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","article_published_time":"2015-01-28T23:59:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/massachusetts-meth-mouth.jpg"}],"author":"AllSmiles","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"AllSmiles","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/","url":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/","name":"How meth affects oral health - Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-28T23:59:56+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-28T23:59:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8d711457dbe058686ca50a64f3091c35"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/how-meth-affects-oral-health\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How meth affects oral health"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/","name":"Lowell Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","description":"Your cosmetic dentistry questions answered","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8d711457dbe058686ca50a64f3091c35","name":"AllSmiles","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4871feb8d40502b614db766f8d98ebe87cf929ac5d4f943528110b3f2d298e54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4871feb8d40502b614db766f8d98ebe87cf929ac5d4f943528110b3f2d298e54?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"AllSmiles"},"url":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/author\/allsmiles\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drszarek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}