Ozempic Is Changing Your Teeth (No One Is Talking About This)

GLP-1 Medications and Dental Concerns 0:00

Did you know that GLP-1 weight loss medications may actually be hurting your teeth? That's right. Dentistry has jumped into the weight loss conversation. Why? Well, anything that affects your diet, your nutrition, your appetite is absolutely going to affect your mouth as well. Now, these GLP-1 medications, they have a lot of effect and have done some amazing things, have really been lifesavers for a lot of people. But the mouth shows early signs of things that these medications may lead to. Things like nutritional deficiencies, problems with nausea and acid in the mouth, issues with mineral imbalances.

All of these things will show up in the mouth. You'll start to notice two sensitivity. Maybe a little bit of just roughness on your teeth or a little darker color. They're a little yellower than they used to be. These changes don't happen overnight with the enamel, but these are symptoms that you may start to recognize. And unfortunately, tooth brushing and taking care of your teeth isn't all that's going to be the answer here, because oral hygiene or tooth care is taking

How GLP-1s Affect Saliva, Acid, and Minerals 1:12

off the bacteria. It's not protecting and rebuilding the enamel. And that's what we need to learn how to do. There are three areas of concern when it comes to your mouth and GLP-1 medications. The first is saliva. A lot of times when your appetite decreases, so does your saliva levels. Saliva is the first thing that starts to activate when you're digesting. So if you are eating less food, if your appetite is decreased, you just don't need as much saliva to take care of the food that you're eating.

Well, saliva is the delivery truck basically for minerals to your teeth. That's how all of the teeth replenish minerals. I like to think of it as grocery store shelves. We take minerals off, we have to restock minerals. We take them off, we restock them and this constantly goes on throughout the day every single time you eat. The pH in your mouth drops, it becomes more acidic, you take minerals off, and then your saliva comes flooding back in and it restocks the minerals, keeps the enamel strong.

Well, if your saliva levels decrease, there's less restocking. So now your enamel is becoming porous and it has less minerals in it. That's problem number one. Problem number two is the nausea, the reflux, the throwing up that often accompanies GLP-1 medication use. Not for everyone, but for a lot of people. There's just this constant feeling of unease in the stomach. Well, if that's the case, there's stomach acid that often will come up and come in contact with the teeth. Anytime you have something highly acidic, which all of that stomach content is highly acidic, it will dissolve minerals.

So now you don't have saliva restocking the shelves as often and stomach contents are coming up and pulling minerals off of the shelf more frequently. You can see how those shelves are going to stay empty. The third problem is mineral deficiencies, nutrient deficiencies. When you are eating less food, you lose weight. This is the reason they work so well. However, when you are eating less food, you have less nutrients available for every single action that has to happen in the body. Well, our heart, our brain, and basically every single cellular function requires minerals.

As do our teeth, our bones. They require minerals to stay strong. However, Our heart, our brain, those cellular functions, we can't live without them. So the body will prioritize those over tooth health. And when the saliva comes to restock the shelves, if there aren't enough minerals to go around, take care of your heart and your brain and all those other things,

Why Tooth Changes May Be Hard to Spot 3:58

and the teeth, the saliva will basically come in empty-handed. It won't have minerals to donate back to the tooth or to restock the shelves with. So now we have kind of a triple whammy. The saliva has decreased. There is more acid in the mouth, which dissolves more minerals, and there's fewer minerals left to restock with. So you can see how all of these additive changes can show up as trouble for the teeth. But one of the additional concerns is that this doesn't show up immediately when you go to the dentist either.

Now, you may have some sensitivity or some rough surfaces like I talked about, but we don't see this on an x-ray. We don't see enamel finning. All we see is decayed enamel or decayed tooth structure on an x-ray. We don't see the relationship between that enamel and the minerals in the bone as much as we're looking for the position of the bone. So we cannot tell are the teeth and the bones losing minerals through an x-ray exam. And we really can't tell it by looking at your teeth either unless we're purposefully looking and saying, I think last time your teeth were a little whiter or a little smoother or you say, my teeth are very sensitive.

This might not be something that shows up automatically on a dental exam. So does this just mean you can't use these medications? Absolutely not. I know how life changing that they have been for so many people. The key is understanding the concerns and the potential problems and being proactive and preventative.

Preventing Damage with Minerals and Hydroxyapatite 5:30

So if you are on these medications, GLP-1 medications, you absolutely need to be intentional about adding more minerals to your system. I talk about this all the time. We have to add minerals on the outside and we have to have minerals from the inside. What is that all about? Well, number one, if the acid is on the tea, that there's less minerals that are being added to the saliva, then you are going to have fewer minerals in the enamel on the outside. that enamel is made up of something called hydroxyapatite.

The good news is we can put minerals right back and we can put the mineral back that your teeth are actually made of, that hydroxyapatite. So that is minerals on the outside, hydroxyapatite tooth care products. I have tooth powder, toothpaste, mouthwash, mints, all of them are hydroxyapatite containing. So when you use these products in your daily care, Not only are you cleaning your teeth and taking care of the bacteria, but you are restocking the enamel and putting minerals back where they belong.

What is this going to do? Well, it's going to make you less resistant to cavities. You're not going to get cavities as easily. It's going to improve that sensitivity. It's going to whiten your teeth naturally. They're going to be less see-through. They're going to be less yellow. All of these things when there are enough minerals in the tooth structure. That's minerals on the outside. Minerals on the inside, why do we need them there? Well, remember, we talked about as your calories decrease, as your food intake decreases, so do all of your nutrient levels.

And again, if your body is having to prioritize and take those minerals elsewhere, there's not enough for the teeth. So you need to add additional minerals. Thankfully this isn't something that's going to add calories so it shouldn't counteract the work that you're doing that way. I have a tooth bone formula that's great. It's minerals specific for teeth and bones. Teeth and bones are made of the same thing. So you want minerals that are specific for that. You also want vitamin D3 and vitamin K2.

Those grab the minerals and then put them in the cells where they belong. Those should be taken the entire time you are using any GLP-1 medication in order to ensure there are enough minerals to go around to take care of everything. So research is still coming out. These are new medications. This doesn't mean that every single person that's using these medications is going to have dental issues. It doesn't mean that this is a one plus one equals two conversation. What it does mean is that your body needs support.

It needs added minerals. And there are things that you can do so that you can continue your weight loss journey without compromising the health and integrity of your teeth.

Staying Proactive During Weight Loss Treatment 8:20

Hopefully this has helped you to understand the reason that your digestive system and everything you're doing there is really affecting your mouth as well. If this information is useful, please subscribe, check in here frequently. I'm going to constantly update this topic in particular as new research comes to light. check in here, check out the products at livingwellwithdrmichelle.com. And if you want a dentist like what we do here at Total Care Dental in Utah, somewhere closer to home, we have a directory there for you as well.

Because my goal, no matter what you are doing on your health journey, is to help you live well.