Many people don’t realize this, but bulimia teeth damage is a common side effect of the condition. The damage to teeth bulimia causes is due to the high acid content in vomit. Repeated vomiting wears away the tooth enamel, leading to bulimia tooth erosion, tooth decay, tooth loss and gum disease.
Recognizing Bulimia Teeth
Dentists and dental hygienists can often identify patients that suffer from bulimia or that have suffered from bulimia in the past just by examining their teeth. Teeth in someone with bulimia often appear almost clear in color due to damage to the tooth enamel. The teeth often appear sort of rounded due to the damage. Bulimia and tooth decay and gum disease are common.
The damage to teeth bulimia causes is similar to tooth damage you might see in patients that suffered severe morning sickness during pregnancy or those that suffered severe nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy treatments. However, those conditions are of limited duration; a woman suffering severe morning sickness recovers after nine months, and frequently even sooner than that. People often suffer from bulimia for years and years and the damage just gets worse and worse as time goes on.
Dentists and dental hygienists spend all day every day looking at teeth and they can usually recognize the damage to teeth bulimia causes even if patients do not disclose the fact that they have or used to have an eating disorder.
Dealing with Bulimia Teeth
Once tooth enamel has been badly damaged, there is only so much that can be done to restore it. Dentists recommend patients with bulimia teeth brush and floss regularly and use toothpaste with fluoride. Some also recommend regular fluoride treatments. Fluoride treatments can be done professionally in the dentist’s office but treatments can also be done at home by the patient.
If damage to the tooth enamel is very severe, teeth may need to be repaired with crowns. In some cases, teeth may be damaged beyond repair and they may need to be pulled. Some dentists have special training or experience treating bulimic patients and restoring their teeth, and good dental care should be considered an important part of a comprehensive treatment plan for someone with bulimia. Health professionals that treat eating disorders can often recommend a good dentist to treat the damage to teeth bulimia causes.
Dentists usually recommend that patients with bulimia get treatment for their condition before having extensive dental work done since patients that continue to vomit regularly will just incur further tooth damage. That does not mean patients should avoid dental care if they are still vomiting regularly, though; everyone should see a dentist regularly, eating disorder or not.
How Dentists Can Respond to Bulimia Teeth
While dentists are in an excellent position to pick up on signs of bulimia like tooth damage, fewer than one third report that they refer patients that show signs of the damaged teeth bulimia causes to treatment for eating disorders. Those that do refer patients for treatment report that they are most likely to refer them to a family physician and unfortunately, many family physicians are not well trained or very experienced in diagnosing and treating eating disorders.
Ideally, dentists would refer patients to a medical doctor or a mental health care professional that is qualified to diagnose and treat conditions like bulimia. Dentists that suspect a patient might suffer from an eating disorder should approach the subject in a caring, respectful manner, but they should approach it. A referral to proper treatment could save a patient’s life.
Beverly P. Whitfords, the former president of the American Dental Hygienist Association, reports that some patients feel more comfortable speaking with their dental hygienist about their eating disorder than talking to their dentist about it, so dental hygienists should also be willing to approach patients about possible eating disorders and offer referrals when appropriate.