Your oral health is affected by many factors, including oral hygiene and underlying health conditions. Some medical conditions, like multiple sclerosis, increase your risk of cavities and other severe conditions affecting your dental health. It is an autoimmune disease that causes immune dysfunction. The medications taken to manage the condition can also affect your oral health.
Increasing your visits to the dentist’s office if you have multiple sclerosis is necessary to understand the changes in your oral health and how you can save your natural teeth from extraction. A skilled dentist will explain how your medical condition affects dental care and what you can do to enjoy better oral health regardless of your challenges.
Effects of Multiple Sclerosis on Dental Care
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, including the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord. The immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) around nerve fibers. The resulting damage disrupts the functioning of nerves, impacting their signal transmission to and from the brain. This leads to nerve damage, scarring, and lesions, along with a wide range of unpredictable symptoms. However, these symptoms vary from one patient to another. Some people are more affected by multiple sclerosis than others.
Since the condition affects your manual dexterity, or your ability to remain agile and skillful with your hands, it can affect how you brush and floss your teeth. People with multiple sclerosis cannot maintain precise, quick, and coordinated physical movements, especially with their hands. They also experience endless fatigue, making it challenging to maintain oral hygiene habits. This increases your risk of common dental and oral issues, like cavities and gum disease. Medications for managing multiple sclerosis also cause a dry mouth, which causes halitosis and reduces your teeth’s protection from cavity-causing bacteria.
In general, here are some of the ways this condition can affect your ability to maintain excellent oral health:
Challenges to Maintaining Dental Hygiene
Multiple sclerosis affects different bodily functions, making dental hygiene challenging. It causes bodily tremors that could make holding a toothbrush or brushing effectively a problem. It also weakens your grip on things, affecting how well you hold a toothbrush or dental floss. The fatigue caused by this condition affects your ability to perform even basic daily tasks like brushing and flossing.
Additionally, some people experience numbness and develop facial soreness, making ordinary tasks like brushing and flossing painful. All these can cause stress, depression, and mood changes that take away your motivation to care for yourself, including your teeth and gums.
Issues with Multiple Sclerosis Medication
Although medication makes you feel better by alleviating some of the symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis, it can affect your oral health and general well-being. For example, multiple sclerosis medication dries your mouth. It affects saliva production, which removes your mouth’s natural ability to cleanse after meals. Saliva cleans some foods and drinks that remain in the mouth after meals, reducing your risk of cavities, gum disease, and other oral conditions caused by harmful oral bacteria.
Saliva also helps remineralize enamel and protects teeth from acid attacks, which is essential for preventing cavities.
Some dietary supplements recommended for multiple sclerosis patients are sugary and can result in plaque buildup. The buildup can result in gingivitis, gum disease, and cavities.
Challenges to Receiving Dental Care
Multiple sclerosis can also complicate dental care, as not all dentists are experienced in treating patients with this condition. Their dental offices are not set up to accommodate patients with challenges sitting still for prolonged periods. When you have multiple sclerosis, it becomes painful to perform basic tasks like sitting or lying down for an extended period. This can affect your ability to receive dental care, including basic dental checkups and examinations, or professional teeth cleaning or treatment.
Here are other challenges you could face while receiving dental care or treatment:
- Inability to remain still in one correct position as a dentist examines your teeth, gums, and jawbone
- You could experience recurrent respiratory problems that affect how you breathe while reclined in a dentist’s chair
- Numbness and pain while performing basic tasks like opening and closing your mouth for examination or treatment
Dental Extractions for Multiple Sclerosis Patients
Remember that dental extractions can be inevitable if you do not care for your teeth, gums, and jawbone. Maintaining excellent oral hygiene is one way to save your natural teeth from extraction. However, this is a significant challenge for multiple sclerosis patients. Even worse, dental extractions are not always easy, especially after severe damage to the tooth by accidents, cavities, or gum disease.
First, regular dental visits are a challenge if you have multiple sclerosis. Thus, you do not get to enjoy the preventive measures dentists put in place during these regular visits, including early diagnosis and treatments, and professional teeth cleaning. Additionally, dental procedures are a nightmare because of the symptoms that the condition causes, including discomfort and pain.
Although tooth extractions are not always major dental procedures, they take time. A dentist will take time to examine the damaged tooth, adjacent teeth, gums, and jawbone to ensure the procedure will be successful. If you have multiple sclerosis, it could be challenging to sit still as your dentist conducts these examinations. You will be expected to prolong your stay at the dentist’s chair for the extraction, which also takes some time. A dentist must administer anesthesia and wait for it to numb the area around the tooth before the extraction happens.
Thus, tooth extractions require a more extended visit to the dentist’s office, which can be difficult and painful. Also, remember that most dentists do not offer accommodations for multiple sclerosis patients. If you have severe symptoms and need several extractions, it can be tough.
Here are some steps a dentist can take to help you with the procedure:
- They can take breaks between the procedures, for example, after every ten or five minutes, to keep you comfortable. However, this can prolong the time you will be at the dentist’s office
- Dentists can use a mouth prop to keep your mouth open on its own, to protect you from straining and the associated pain
- They can use specialized pads or cushions on the dental chair to increase your comfort
- Your dentist can coordinate medication doses with your primary care doctor, especially when you are scheduled for a dental extraction or any other procedure.
Autoimmune conditions like MS can indirectly affect soft tissues, as immune dysfunction and related medications may weaken gum health over time. Dental implants are permanent anchors surgically placed on the jawbone to support an artificial tooth after tooth extraction. Instead of wearing dentures on weak gums, a dental implant can be an excellent alternative for your missing teeth.
Thus, you should disclose your medical condition to your dentist when seeking dental care. They will advise you on the best treatment options for your condition and tailor dental procedures to meet your needs.
Resources Available for Multiple Sclerosis Patients
Remember that multiple sclerosis affects people differently; the symptoms can be more severe for some people than others. Thus, some people can easily manage dental care and oral hygiene without much struggle. If you experience severe symptoms that make oral hygiene and dental care difficult, you can benefit from some of the resources and tools recommended below:
- You can use an electric toothbrush to make brushing your teeth less tiring and more feasible, since you do not need as much energy to use it effectively
- Your dentist can recommend a long-handled toothbrush that is easy to grip and control, and can reach all parts of your mouth effortlessly
- You can choose plastic dental flossers since they are easier to manage when removing stuck food from between your teeth
- A water pick can also work very well in eliminating stuck foods from between your teeth, since it is easier to handle than a dental flosser
- Wearing a weighted glove can also help keep your hand still while brushing and flossing
- A bathroom stool or bench can also help if you need a place to rest while brushing and flossing your teeth daily
Other Ways to Boost Your Dental Hygiene When You Have Multiple Sclerosis
Remember that multiple sclerosis can affect your ability to maintain excellent oral hygiene and receive dental care. In addition to using some of the recommended assistive tools and resources, here are other ways you can boost your oral hygiene to keep your teeth strong and healthy regardless of your health condition:
Avoid Smoking
Smoking is detrimental to your oral health and general well-being. It affects the health of your teeth and gums, and all the soft tissues within your mouth. Smoking affects the production of saliva, which leaves your mouth dry and your teeth at risk of cavities.
Your dentist and physician will advise you against smoking to keep your teeth and gums healthy, regardless of your medical condition.
Stay Hydrated
Hydration also keeps your teeth and gums healthy. It flushes out food that remains in your mouth after meals. It also boosts saliva production. Remember that saliva keeps your mouth clean and protects your teeth from bacterial attack.
Use a Humidifier
A humidifier can help with your breathing. It moistens the air in your environment, especially at night, so your mouth will not dry.
Chew Gum
Your dentist can recommend chewing gum from time to time to encourage the production of saliva in the mouth. Remember that this helps keep your mouth clean and teeth safe from cavities. However, sugar-free gums are recommended since sugar is also detrimental to your oral health.
Visit Your Dentist Regularly
Regular visits to the dentist’s office are highly recommended for all people for routine checkups and examinations. Dentists also perform professional teeth cleaning during these visits. However, your dentist can recommend more regular visits if you have multiple sclerosis. They will examine your teeth and gums to ensure they are healthy and strong. If your dentist notices a developing issue with your teeth, like a cavity, they can treat it before it worsens.
Treating a developing dental issue takes less time. It will also help you avoid painful dental extractions, which require a lengthy procedure that can be difficult to undergo in your medical condition.
Eat a Balanced Diet
You can manage some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis by sticking to a well-balanced diet. Your physician will recommend healthy foods, like whole foods, and warn you against sugary and processed foods, which can worsen your situation. These foods will also benefit your oral health. Sugary and starchy foods encourage the growth of harmful cavity-causing bacteria. They also increase your risk of severe conditions like gum disease and oral cancer. A balanced diet will keep your oral and general health in check.
Replace Toothbrushes Regularly
Your toothbrush should be replaced every three months to protect your teeth from harmful bacteria that can build up on it over time. Maintaining a clean toothbrush can also be challenging when you have multiple sclerosis. This puts your teeth and gums at a higher risk of cavities and gum disease. Replacing your toothbrush more regularly can protect your mouth from harmful oral bacteria.
Additionally, a worn-out brush can be abrasive to your teeth and gums, resulting in inflammation, gum recession, and enamel erosion.
Find a Competent Dentist Near Me
If you or someone you know has multiple sclerosis in Northridge and is also experiencing dental or oral problems, a skilled dentist can help. Multiple sclerosis affects how you care for yourself, including your teeth. It also affects how well you receive dental care. However, skilled dentists have various strategies and recommendations to help you enjoy healthy and functional teeth and gums regardless of your medical condition. Some suggestions can make your dental care and treatment, including extractions, trouble-free.
At Northridge Advanced Dentistry, we know that your teeth and gums are at greater risk of cavities and gum disease when you have multiple sclerosis. We can work with you to protect your dental health so you can avoid lengthy dental procedures like extractions. Call us at 818-701-3010 to learn more about your situation and our services.
