Friday, January 19, 2007
Follow up
Good morning readers. I recently found some information and would like to follow up on something.
Several posts ago, I mentioned a discussion about Weight Loss Surgery, and some problems that go with them. I have been reading a website for about a year, that has a forum to provide information about the Duodenal Switch version of WLS. One of the posts in that forum tackled a question that came up in the discussion I was writing about, that of people that have WLS ending up with bad teeth (or something like that). The following is a copy/paste from the DS/WLS forum that I read that deals with the tooth issue.
He said in recent years he has indeed had a surprisingly high number of WLS people in but that he did not feel it was due to nutritional or vitamin deficits. Rather, he broke it down for me like this:
1. Since about 1999, the number of people who have had various forms of weight loss surgery has gone up over 900%. That's not a typo - nine hundred percent. So there are that many more people in the general population who are post ops, period. It stands to reason that there will be more people going in with dental problems because of this.
2. As we've talked about in the past, many MO people do not take care of themselves. They don't go to doctors as frequently as they should and that includes dentists.
3. He said that our teeth develop while we are still children and into our teen years. Teeth in and of themselves are not affected by internal vitamin or nutritional deficiencies. Teeth are external and therefore are affected primarily by what touches them directly. Like sugar. Or toothpaste (and lack thereof). So when our teeth decay and/or break down, it's because of what they come in contact with, not by things like low calcium.
Now, if we have calcium or nutritional issues, that can affect our bones and our tissue which means it would affect our jaws...the bone structure that HOLDS our teeth...but not the teeth themselves. If otherwise healthy teeth just start falling out, that is indicative of deeper problems.
4. He feels that in addition to the above, the other reason he's seeing more post ops is because our eating habits are changed. Yes, we eat smaller meals but we eat more of them (this might be more gastric bypass than ds). We're drinking a lot more fluids and while we do drink and eat less *sugar*, we're likely still consuming a fair amount of sweet things...just with sugar substitutes and they can be just as detrimental to our teeth. We're also likely using our teeth more as we're eating more protein and fiber-laden foods that require more chewing. He thinks that combining these factors has led to the increase.
After reading that, I gotta admit that I was wrong about the possible causes. But, after reading that post, it makes sense to me, and also hits home. It has been 20 years since my last visit to the dentist, and I don't intend to be going back any time soon.
The DS/WLS forum also tackled the hair loss issue, and has confirmed that it is temporary, and other surgeries cause it as well. I haven't yet found a post that is real informative, such as the one I pasted regarding the tooth issue, though.
Several posts ago, I mentioned a discussion about Weight Loss Surgery, and some problems that go with them. I have been reading a website for about a year, that has a forum to provide information about the Duodenal Switch version of WLS. One of the posts in that forum tackled a question that came up in the discussion I was writing about, that of people that have WLS ending up with bad teeth (or something like that). The following is a copy/paste from the DS/WLS forum that I read that deals with the tooth issue.
He said in recent years he has indeed had a surprisingly high number of WLS people in but that he did not feel it was due to nutritional or vitamin deficits. Rather, he broke it down for me like this:
1. Since about 1999, the number of people who have had various forms of weight loss surgery has gone up over 900%. That's not a typo - nine hundred percent. So there are that many more people in the general population who are post ops, period. It stands to reason that there will be more people going in with dental problems because of this.
2. As we've talked about in the past, many MO people do not take care of themselves. They don't go to doctors as frequently as they should and that includes dentists.
3. He said that our teeth develop while we are still children and into our teen years. Teeth in and of themselves are not affected by internal vitamin or nutritional deficiencies. Teeth are external and therefore are affected primarily by what touches them directly. Like sugar. Or toothpaste (and lack thereof). So when our teeth decay and/or break down, it's because of what they come in contact with, not by things like low calcium.
Now, if we have calcium or nutritional issues, that can affect our bones and our tissue which means it would affect our jaws...the bone structure that HOLDS our teeth...but not the teeth themselves. If otherwise healthy teeth just start falling out, that is indicative of deeper problems.
4. He feels that in addition to the above, the other reason he's seeing more post ops is because our eating habits are changed. Yes, we eat smaller meals but we eat more of them (this might be more gastric bypass than ds). We're drinking a lot more fluids and while we do drink and eat less *sugar*, we're likely still consuming a fair amount of sweet things...just with sugar substitutes and they can be just as detrimental to our teeth. We're also likely using our teeth more as we're eating more protein and fiber-laden foods that require more chewing. He thinks that combining these factors has led to the increase.
After reading that, I gotta admit that I was wrong about the possible causes. But, after reading that post, it makes sense to me, and also hits home. It has been 20 years since my last visit to the dentist, and I don't intend to be going back any time soon.
The DS/WLS forum also tackled the hair loss issue, and has confirmed that it is temporary, and other surgeries cause it as well. I haven't yet found a post that is real informative, such as the one I pasted regarding the tooth issue, though.
# posted by Tiny @ 7:22 AM 
