Meth Mouth

Every wonder what you’d look like without any teeth? Probably hasn’t crossed your mind. But those who use meth better think about it.

Besides all the other health risks related to meth use, users are extremely at risk for “meth mouth,” a term commonly used to describe the widespread tooth decay that often happens to people who use meth.

Usually, the decay is so bad that the teeth cannot be saved and must be pulled. Think we are kidding? Take a look at the pictures on this page of those who have used meth for three or more years.

Meth eats your body from the inside out. By the time your teeth look like the ones in the pictures, brain cells have been eaten and permanently damaged. As meth flows through the blood to the heart, muscles, bones, and teeth, it eats cells, deposits toxins and poisons, and destroys healthy tissues.

If you use meth, you could experience the following:

• Extremely painful teeth and gums (don’t plan on sleeping much with these bad boys).
• Bad taste from infection and nasty smell. (Try explaining that one to your date.)
• Infected teeth leading to an unhealthy body. (Serious infections from your gums can infect the rest of your body. People have died from infections that started in their mouth.)
• Inability to eat or chew many solid foods (can you say “more oatmeal, please?”).
• Jawbone loss.
• Gum disease. (Yeah that’s one of the reasons your breath smells like a buffalo. And leads to dangerous infections.)
• Rapid decay of teeth (Real attractive. Check out the pictures, again.)
• Loss of teeth. (Hey, you can still laugh out loud; just type it out on your computer.)

Think that you can get by with dentures? Think again:

• Natural teeth chew with 150 pounds of pressure. Gum tissue for dentures can only support 5 to 25 pounds of pressure. (Do you really want to live on smoothies?)
• With dentures, you cannot bite or chew with your front teeth. (At least you won’t bite your nails anymore.)
• Dentures need to be replaced every 5 years. (You’ll be able to afford it with that high-paying job you’ll get with that winning smile, right?)
• Dentures only function at 10 percent of the efficiency of your natural teeth. (You lost only 90 percent?)
• You’ll look 10 years older after all your teeth are pulled. (Cool! You’ll be able to hang out with your parent’s friends.)