Yes This Affects Your Teeth Too

Let’s dive into the controversial yet widespread topic of marijuana usage. Not something you think you’d be discussing with your dentist.  Allow me to clarify why we want to shine light on this topic.

When Connecticut legalized the recreational use of cannabis (marijuana) in 2021, dispensaries started popping up, more people started using the drug. So that same year, we revised our patient health history questionnaire to include the questions: Do you consume marijuana and if yes, how frequently?

To be frank, we don’t ask why, only “if yes, how frequently?”. This is why:

Marijuana has effects on your oral health, as do many other drugs. This information is hard to come by for the average person because the media is over-saturated with so many different stories about marijuana! But that’s why we are writing this blog article.

Recently published in the Journal of the American Dental Association was a study that reported on decay and tooth loss in frequent recreational cannabis users versus non-users. Severe tooth loss was over 40% higher for users, and tooth decay 55% higher. Marijuana doesn’t have sugar in it, so how does this happen?

It can be explained by three factors:

1. After a person smokes it, there is a period of about 16 hours when one experiences dry mouth. A dry mouth is an environment for decay to develop because there is not enough saliva to flush away the decay causing bacteria.
2. Most people get hungry after smoking and crave sweets (hello, sugar!).
3. Most people don’t prioritize brushing and flossing their teeth after consuming marijuana, so all the residue from carbohydrates and sugar sticks around in that dry mouth environment, setting up the perfect storm for dental problems.

Marijuana can help minimize physical pain. This is a great source of relief to many and this can be very problematic in some scenarios. Pain is an important sign that something is wrong and requires attention and care. As a doctor, it is my job to help fix any problems that cause you pain. If your body has a problem but you feel no pain, you aren’t able to tell me so I am unable to help you fix it. Not good.

Recently one of our patients, who used to use marijuana very frequently, shared with me another dimension to the potential problems of heavy marijuana usage.

She said there were never any signs that there were serious problems in her mouth because she hardly ever felt pain or discomfort from her tooth decay. She believed her oral health to be fine. Upon reflection, she explained that she didn’t feel any serious physical pain because she was high from marijuana most of the day, most of the time. By the time she did notice the discomfort in her mouth, it was too late to save her teeth. She ended up losing several teeth.

No matter what the reason, frequency, or time of day one consumes marijuana, our dental staff must know if you are a marijuana user in case of emergencies or in preparation of certain procedures/surgeries.

Some people have anxiety before their first few visits with us and they may pre-medicate with marijuana to calm themselves beforehand. We at Maryann Lehmann, DDS are judgment-free and need to be aware of this though! So the more you can tell us about your health and habits, the better we can treat you.