Got meds? Got dry mouth? See your dentist NOW.

I’m leaving town for the holidays next week.  Before I leave town I need to make copies of several keys, touch base with cat-sitters, and hopefully get my hair cut.  I had a major deadline yesterday, another major deadline tomorrow, and another on Thursday.  I have to go to a holiday party thrown by some of my husband’s colleagues this weekend and I have nothing to wear and I hate shopping.  And we’re changing insurers at the end of the year, so I’ve been running all over town for eye appointments and such, so basically I’ve been going nuts and I don’t need any more on my plate just now.

But I got a nasty surprise at my dentist appointment this morning.

Let me start by saying that I’ve always had pretty good teeth.  I didn’t get a cavity in my adult teeth until I was 27, and that was after six years of dentist avoision and eight years on a heavy dose of anti-depressants (to say nothing of daily antihistamines for more than a decade, ).  After another six years of dentist-free existence (and continued medication) I got a check-up and was told I had one or two more small cavities.  That was about eighteen months ago.  I’ve been getting regular check-ups since then, and I’ve gotten a lot better about flossing.

A few days ago I had a dental cleaning, check-up, and X-ray.  I was pretty sure I’d come out of it cavity-free, thanks to my newfound flossing habit.  Imagine my shock when I was told that I have seven new cavities.  Seven.  That’s at least double what I already had.  And not all of them are small either.  Oh, and most of them are between my teeth.  This will be fun.

My dentist works with a junior partner who was handling my initial exam.  I first started to get nervous when she looked at my X-rays and said “Uh … I have some concerns here … do you floss?” I replied that yes, I do floss. “Hmmm,” said Dr B, “Well, let me get Dr. Y in here for a consult …”.  Dr Y looked at my X-rays and said, “So.  You’re on a medication that makes your mouth dry?”

That’s right, folks.  Ten months of Vyvanse and seven (seven!) freakin’ cavities.  I’ve been on psychoactives before, and I’ve had dry mouth before, and I noticed this was worse than usual.  But since I was sick of having to pee every half hour I learned the difference between dry mouth and actual thirst.  And even if I had kept drinking like the proverbial fish, simply drinking water doesn’t replace the anti-bacterial and remineralizing properties of saliva.  I knew that dry mouth was correlated with tooth decay — that’s why I was flossing.  But seriously, seven #@$^%&! cavities?

“I see this a lot”, Dr Y explained.  “I have a lot of doctors as patients and they get maybe one lecture in med school about teeth.  They don’t know about the full effects of some of these medications.  When they prescribe these meds, they should tell their patients to see their dentists ASAP to talk about prevention.  There are things dentists can do to prevent this, but we have to know about it first.”

To keep my teeth from falling out, Dr Y gave me some high-octane fluoridated toothpaste, to be brushed on gently and left on my teeth for a few minutes.  I will now be flossing after every meal.  And I will also be chewing gum with xylitol, an alcohol sugar that can’t be metabolized by bacteria but stimulates salivation.  I hate gum.  But I hate dentist drills more.

So, all you ADHD folks out there, if you’re on meds, please, please see your dentist.  Even if you’re not aware of having dry-mouth, it can still be there, wreaking havoc on your pearly whites.  Getting cavities filled is painful, expensive, and yet another way to disrupt our precious schedule and equilibrium, and that’s the last thing we need.