A question about dental issues following GS

Dental issues can most certainly be a killer. Oral infections and other complications from your teeth and mouth can lead to blood poisoning and heart failure. I've seen it happen in my husband's family, even with regular dental care. Unless you've seen those who have not won the dental genetic lottery, you don't know how bad it can be.

I can't attest to any long term personal experience with dental issues because I only had surgery 2 months ago, but I did ask my mom who is 10 years post op and she said that there has been no change to her oral health following surgery and the only bone issue she experiences is arthritis in her knee caused by being overweight her whole life (I hope to avoid that bone issue BY getting surgery).

As far as feeling mutilate...well when I got out of surgery I almost didn't believe that my surgeon had actually performed a RNY on me! Besides the small cuts, I felt completely normal....and after I healed from the cuts (which also took a much shorter amount of time than I thought) the only indication to me that I've had surgery was that I was eating less, less hungry, and losing SO MUCH weight lol

I mean, you have to decide what's right for you, but from all of the research and online forums that I've visited, it seems like the dental thing isn't really that big of an issue (I'm sure that is the reason there are no dentist on the pre op staff) and for all the other possible side effects...well at what point is lactose intolerance and having to take GasX once a day worth being healthier, more active, (and in my case happier and more attractive lol)?

I wish you the best and hope you find the answers you're looking for.

PS - They now put you on a medication for 6 months following surgery lowering your risk for gallbladder removal from 30% to less than 5%

Thanks, Haley, for the helpful reply. And congratulations on your weight loss so far! I wish you the best. :^)

Ah well thank you! Also, I just found this study published by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health on the relationship between weight loss surgery and dental health, perhaps this will clear things up?

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5467377/

Uhg, I can't get it to hyperlink, but you can just copy and paste the link into the top and it'll take you there.

14 years out. Still have all my teeth and my bone density is good for my age. I do go to the dentist 3 x per year for cleaning and deep cleaning every 2 years.

I think hygiene and vitamin/mineral supplementation is the key to good teeth, as it is to our good health overall. It's in your hands!

Thank you!

Actually I have been taking better care of my teeth since i was pre-op. I was learning to take care of myself

my teeth are healthier now than ever. It took having WLS to take care of me.

Same here. I went to the dentist for the first time in 8 years after getting surgery, because...well like you said...it's time to take care of ourselves, right?

Many bariatric patients have dental issues. I had a long conversation with doctors about this, and in a lot of cases it's not the surgery that causes the problems. More often there were dental issues pre-op that, for whatever reason, did not get handled. In many cases, people have disordered eating or eating disorders, and the latter can easily destroy teeth. Bulimia, in particular, destroys dental enamel like no one's business. Vomiting in general post-op is best to be avoided for a number of reasons, dental health being among them. I can see where malabsorption would adversely affect teeth for sure, but that is a slow and insidious process. More likely any dental issues created by surgery though are due to GERD which is known to be destructive to teeth.

There's also no nice way to say this and I am the crazy NJ girl: it's hard to sit in a dentist chair when you are fat. I assure you many of my dental issues came from my eating disorder in conjunction with the fact there was no way in heck I was going to subject myself to the pain of trying to get dental care and being rejected because I could not fit in the chair.

Also consider that since surgery is a process of medical screening these issues get caught far more quickly, so it may not be malabsorption or surgery that harms them, but a correlational effect that gets witnessed with a similar event. For instance, if you get hit by a car while listening to a particular song, you might infer that the song caused you to get in an accident. The reality is that it was a random occurrence even though our brains want to use it as affirmation of a cause. The same thing may be happening with dental caries and surgery.

We are also much more pro-health than surgery, well mostly ahem, and so we naturally become more diligent in general about dental health. Depression frequently abates post-op for quite a few folks, and depression is notorious for causing people to skip daily dental care.

So there are many factors you know? And.....surprisingly little research on bariatric patients and dental wear/caries/and other stuff for my liking.