Oxycontin Damaged My Teeth (Page 23)

Has anyone else known oxycontin to rot the teeth? I used to be on vicodin until my doctor told me I needed to switch to a morphine based meds. She put me on ms contin but I had problems with it so she put me on 80mg oxycontin. Eventually my body built up a tolerance so she kept raising it, i have am now on from 4-6 per day of the 80mg tabs. It scares me that this is what rotted my teeth because only 5 yrs ago i had only 2 cavities that needed filling and then only 1 yr after going on the oxycontin i had to have all my top front teeth pulled as they where rotting from the inside out the dentist said my mouth looked like a heroin addict's mouth looks. He said it was shocking to him that normally he only saw such damage from someone who abused drugs with so much dental damage, but i have never done any street drugs and have only take my meds as prescribed to me. Now i have lost 80% of my teeth and as a beautiful 41 yr old mother its devastating. I cant afford dentures and sure cant afford implants like i would like to have. I am a single mother and refuse to date because i have lost my teeth now, i had beautiful teeth before i started on the oxycontin and only 2 small cavities that needed filling. Does anyone else have this same problem and if so why hasn't the company making oxycontin warn patients of this possible problem?

If i had known this would cause me to lose most of my teeth i would have never agreed to go on it. Of course my family doctor who has been prescribing them tells me she hasn't heard of any other cases, yet when i researched the med online there where others like this why hasn't something been put in the warnings about this med, i sure would have preferred to have lived in pain the rest of my life rather than lose my teeth and be unable to even eat now. My health has gone downhill fast as i cant even chew foods necessary for good health. All I can eat now are yogurts, and liquid type of foods which isn't much. My kids are 7 and 9 yrs old and they watch me cry when we go out to eat and they order steak, and i can smell it but can't order one as i know i wont be able to chew it. This is so devastating for me. I want teeth so badly if i could wish for anything in life besides not to be poor anymore it would be to have a full set of real teeth or implants but i could never dream of having them, and i don't know anyone out there willing to just help me get any either. I have always helped others all my life, but cant even help myself, i have had to have 29 surgeries now since 1991 when a drunk driver hit my car and caused me major injuries with my lower back and knees, i have had a full lower back fusion and 8 arthroscopic knee surgeries until a year ago they finally had to do a full right knee replacement and now they are talking about doing my left knee soon.

So my life has been up and down with surgeries and i would go thru one more surgery just to have teeth implanted if i could. but i could never afford it, but i would like to know why these drug manufacturers are making a medication that could cause teeth to rot like this without warning us patients or even warning the doctors about it. This is just terrible of them i think, as now i am the one paying for this by having no teeth to eat with at such a young age now. I am a vibrant young 41 yr old at 5'3, 120lbs, slim woman, nice looking too as i was a model in my younger days, so i keep my looks up. But to have no teeth now... I never smile anymore, I am to ashamed to smile even though it wasn't my fault i lost my teeth. I think they should pay for me to have new teeth but no one wants to admit that the med causes it, but my diet wasn't the problem back when i started the medication and i wasn't drinking coca-cola either or doing street drugs so i know that wasn't the cause either. The only thing that changed within one year to cause this was starting the oxycontin medication. Well, if anyone out there can help me let me know thanks.

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Hollywood it is unfortunate but how many millions of us have DIED due to intractable pain; for hundreds of years pain was treated (do not kid yourselves) back in the old days medicine men would travel across the roads in covered wagons selling bottles of "laudanum" which was poppy in a bottle, and yes physicians made house calls and many hard working individuals were given remedies for their aches and pains.

We went through a long period and around the time of my injury (90's) scientific fact showed that (1) pain is a separate disorder not just a symptom (2) that treating intractable pain with opioids kept families from breaking apart, some folks working, and offered quality of life.

Right now we are suffering Odumma restrictions. As I've said before I swear by brand name Maalox, and household bleach why did THEY disappear off the shelves early in his election years? Why did Tylenol become a prescription in some states causing women with little money and kids with fevers to pay for a pediatrician to write this drug as a prescription?

Why did the cost of opioids quadruple in the past 5 years causing WC insurers who already have the highest suicide rate of any injured parties in the U.S. due to the different regulations per state for comp, and also degrading sometimes killing off the injured worker? Why do IME's get a check for a million instead of the IW who is suffering terrible and permanent damage because the IME is willing to write medical documents suddenly curing a back ruptured, surgically cut, filled with DDD stating there is "no apparent pain" when the money is due the worker and his family WHY?

Why is America allowing the best medical care offered in the world to be degraded by a bumpkin who likely was not born here, who believes in socialism but is a weak contender for the likes of Mussolini and Hitler (neither of which I approve just saying) and due to the mixed color of skin LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS? This is disrespectful to blacks and whites of which he claims both colors.

I wish him one good sized stone stuck in his right ureter and when his racist wife takes him to the naval hospital nearby to tell him "Sir we are out of morphine, meperidine, and you took all the pills off the market but we can give you a good old aspirin maybe two while you push that rock out of that tube..." I wish him 5 to 30 hours of this pain without comfort.

I cannot believe the veritable suffering in America; familial suicide due to the economy, and he is still there after committing treason, after murder hand in hand with Hillary.

Sorry had to get that off my chest.

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The only thing that would cause rotten teeth with this drug is dry mouth? Also, what else are you taking. I'm not saying you use methamphetamine but methamphetamine will cause rotten teeth. Make sure your hydrated for sure. Otherwise, the only thing you can do is brush often. Good luck! Rotten teeth will affect your health in general.

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Ali this is scientific research decreased saliva my dear is not external it is due to metabolic defects caused by metabolism of the opioids in your case amphetamine.

This is not remedied at all by good dental hygiene I've been seen by the top researcher and rare pain specialist Dr. T in California both he and a top dental expert state otherwise.

Hygiene is necessary but won't do a thing for this.

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Ali this is a serious potential death causing secondary effect would you like to support people here or perhaps you do not understand that some of us can and will die without opioid pain management.

Mine is such a case.

This is a support forum.

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Thank you for letting others who would've known this is a side affect know. It really is devastating. I had my front teeth knocked out when I was 22 it took months to finally have the stubs pulled bc I had no money and I worked ft with my teeth that way. It's terrible that the manufacturers of oxy doesn't warn of this side affect. I pray you find a way to fix your teeth.
A side note, my daughter is disabled (someone threw a 7lb rock off a overpass thru the windshield hitting her in the face) when she applied for Medicaid, she signed up for dental they haven't made her pay so far. Maybe there's a dental school that can help if that doesn't work?
Your story is truly heartbreaking. God bless

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Ali the person wrote in 2008 we knew about decreased saliva then (I am a professional nurse and published researcher) and will tell you ALL opioids cause this not just one ALL. Now more physicians are noting it and attempting to get patients restorative care for example my catastrophic injury was work related. This is secondary damage due to the injury because I must have pain management for life.

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And.... Just to add tho the fact that ALL OPIOID medications have this side effect, virtually all anti depressants carry the same warning. MY problem with the opioid manufacturers is that they BURY this warning on the medication`s pamphlet that, unless you are prescribed a full bottle`s worth, you'll never get access to unless you specifically ask for it or you look up the physicians supplementary medical information on the Internet. Further, I still question just how long the manufacturers have included the dental caries warning as I suspect it's only been fairly recently since the problem with patients losing their teeth have really come to light and people are demanding explanations! Let's also make it clear that the teeth aren't being lost due to simple cavities, either! Most of us are/have been losing our teeth because they are literally breaking apart and the destruction is coming from the inside out and others are having their teeth literally break of at the gum line! This isn't a simple question of cavities or a lack of dental hygiene which many doctors and dentists would like you to believe.

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Christine it is far more dangerous it is medically termed dental erosion which can lead to abscess, bone loss and require total restoration.

Well put.

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Honestly, I think the pharmaceutical companies are getting ready for the class action lawsuit. I still can't find the warning on tooth decay and their should be one. Another person said that there is something on the info sheet that says it's a rare problem less then 1% ? That's such Bologny.

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Ali you won't find the warning because they do not presume anyone would be on opioids for life as most of us must be.

A short week or so post op won't cause dental erosion see?

Peace out.

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Get the teeth fixed and stop looking for someone to pay for them. Life it is what it is.

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that's a ridiculous comment and has no place for here!

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John how interesting.

Are you on opioid therapy. If so what set of teeth should they get fixed? For instance I referred a long term party with gorgeous teeth before her accident hard as rock and lovely not a cavity in sight.

Well after a year and she requires LA and LONG term therapy her mouth was filled with cavities, breaking teeth, and then abscesses which went to her BONE leading to osteomyelitis and oral surgery.

First go round $12,000 just to gut, clean, and cut it up. No restoration.

Three years later she is facing full extractions and then what does she eat with. First the top came out and with a proper denture (nothing fancy for she was too frail for such work) the cost was $5,000.

Two more years now the bottom is eating her jaw away already fought bone infection and oral surgery; they will have to IMPLANT CADAVER bone for implants and suggest since so much bone loss she has dual implants with clip on denture we are looking at a time frame to restore of six months and $16,000.

John these people are clean and keeping their teeth brushed. This is epidemic perhaps you are a rich man but the rich would not waste money on bad investments.

Ponder that.

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You tell him, P450! This guy doesn't have a clue and has insulted each and every one of us who have been adversely affected by this side effect of a drug that we all depend upon to help us deal with the 24/7 pain none of us asked for! Really, Baby John, do you REALLY THINK that if we had a choice in the matter we would have chosen this for ourselves? And I, just like P450, can't help but ask if you are a chronic pain sufferer and if you have ANY IDEA what it's like to watch your once beautiful, bright smile melt away one by one and piece by piece. I think the word here is COMPASSION AND EMPATHY!

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Sadly, there is case after case of this kind of horrible bone and teeth loss. This is so heartbreaking for this woman. To have some say just get over it is so insulting. These people who have had life altering injury are NOT druggies trying to get a fix, they are people who have gone through hell like the woman you speak of. To have baby John say just get over it makes me think he has no idea of the helL these people have gone through.

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Ali yes it is and I'd ignore people who come on here to cause others pain. It is far worse then just simple hygiene, and the real risk past eating and digestion is infection which can cause infection to the pericardium and blood brain barrior which we know is fatal.

Agreed <3

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Hi Christine yes and I just got ball blasted on a Colorado post as if I were saying something to insult someone over there. Over there are we in certain zones I mean I'm not originally Texan for God's sake PAIN will take you around the world don't you agree sister :)

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I wonder each and every day just when the bone loss, the gum inflammation and the access is going to cause me to stroke or have a heart attack, only two of the myriads of detrimental physical manifestations we are all susceptible to, Baby John!

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Christine it better not!!

You are too cool already I think we will end up meeting one day soon :)

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All of my teeth rotted from inside out. One abcessed so in 2 weeks an oral surgeon is removing one molar with huge hole, a premolar thats decayed & one that snapped at gumline so roots are still there. I also have another one thst snapped on upper left. The three bring removed are all on right. This will bring to ten teeth lost. It's going to cost $2,000 for 3 teeth because I need IV sedation. The oral surgeon was perplexed why I wasn't getting all cavities fixed. Simple. 2 years ago I spent over $1300 getting 13 cavities fixed thst hadn't been there the previous six months. After having them all repaired, at next checkup they were all rotting from inside out. So I'm just doing ones that hurt. What probably prevented major infection is that I take antibiotics everyday due to constant UTI's from interstitial cystitis & pelvic floor dysfunction.

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