@lorumipsum
Before taking Oxybutynin (and to make things worse, the max dose per day is supposed to be 10mg but they were giving me 30mg!!!) I’d only had two cavities in my entire life, on my back teeth where my braces had attached to my teeth (so not really my fault). I still had my wisdom teeth and remarkably, they were in great shape. My parents spent $7,500 on my orthodontic work from 1983-1994 to ensure my teeth would be straight, have room, and not get cavities. I went through so much mouth and teeth pain to get my teeth and overbite straight. It worked! But after three years of being on that a**hole drug Oxybutynin, every one of my teeth had at least three cavities, I needed seven root canals, and nine crowns. I finally had to get my wisdom teeth out because they’re soft teeth and get easily infected. They were irreparable. It became one of the most horrifically painful and itchy experiences of my life because I got dry sockets during recovery. Thanks to the experience of getting dry sockets, now one of my greatest fears in life is getting my teeth pulled. I was born with a hive skin disorder (Cholinergic Urticaria, or “temperature hives” - any time I move from a cold area to a hot area or vice versa, my skin reacts to the temperature change by giving me itchy hives). So I’m very familiar with severe itching, but hives/chicken pox/shingles are *nothing* on the itching scale compared to dry sockets. And there’s nothing they can do to fix or treat it; you just have to suffer through another three weeks of hellacious recovery. It’s way up there on the list of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced like a kidney stone or having my cervix dilated and a big chunk of my uterus cut out with no anesthetic.
Now, five years later, I also have Premature Menopause and early-onset Osteoporosis because I had to have a hysterectomy (thanks to cancer) at a young age. So I don’t make estrogen on my own any more. Women have estrogen receptors in our gums so when our body can no longer detect estrogen, it figures we don’t need our teeth or to be alive any more (hence, why post-menopausal women get so many kinds of cancer - nature decides we’re useless) because we’re no longer able to perform nature’s primary objective: to reproduce. BUT! I take multiple forms of estrogen as part of hormone replacement therapy and my estrogen is back at a healthy level in my body. So that’s NOT the cause of tooth decay. What’s to blame is Oxybutynin, according to three dentists, an endodontist, and an oral surgeon.
Six of my teeth have broken all the way off at the base or halfway off in the past year. Now I’m almost used to the disgusting feeling of biting down to chew something and finding a chunk of my tooth (my own bone!!!!) in my mouth. The fillings I’ve had just come out because the decay from dry mouth was so severe the tooth just continues to rot around the filling so they just fall out. Ditto my teeth under crowns, which are supposed to last for 20 years: nope, my teeth just keep rotting under the crowns and the crowns have nothing to hold onto so the crowns come off. It’s hopeless.
Now three dentists say every one of my teeth either needs to be implanted or to get crowned. Each tooth implant costs $3,000-$5,000 x 26 teeth ; $78,000-$130,000 is not in my budget; I don’t even own a place to live yet. Each crown costs me $600-$1000 so that would cost $15,600-$26,000 to get them all crowned - and for what, just to have the crowns fall off two years later?!!!!!!
Meanwhile, dentures with three implants to hold them in tightly, a disgusting, shameful option, would “only” cost about $12,000. So what’s the right choice? Seems like it’s dentures. All my dentists say to try to keep my own teeth as long as I can but of course that’s what they say because they want all that cash for crowning every one of my teeth. I’m only 48. I don’t deserve this. All of this has happened to me because of Oxybutynin. I’ve taken immaculate care of my teeth my entire life, always brushing after every time I eat, even if it’s just a snack. They were brilliant white. I had a Hollywood smile. But now I’m like people in commercials for implants who have to cover their mouth up when they speak because of the holes in my mouth. Both of my front teeth are chipped, like I’m some kind of drug smoker. If I get dentures, as if wearing diapers to bed isn’t humiliating enough, I’ll definitely never feel comfortable kissing anyone ever again let alone sleeping with someone when I don’t have my teeth in. It’s beyond humiliating. I’m driving a car from the year 2000 because my medical expenses are so high. I’ve already spent $27,000 on my teeth in the past 6-7 years since Oxybutynin. My gums are fine; it’s just my teeth that aren’t. I have to use prescription toothpastes and mouthwashes. I WANT TO SPEND MONEY ON MY $3,200 COPAY FOR A KNEE OR HIP REPLACEMENT, not on my stupid teeth. But that was another reason they wouldn’t go through with my knee surgery: you have to get a letter from your dentist saying your teeth will be fine for the next six months. The risk of getting an infection after a knee replacement is so high that you can’t even get a dental cleaning because doing so always introduces bacteria into your system apparently, something my dentist confirmed. So now I need to fix my teeth before I can get knee surgery.
I can’t stand it
I have three college degrees and a professional career I’ve worked so hard for. My career requires that I have good teeth and a professional smile. But it’s in the arts (film) so it doesn’t pay very well. But before all my medical and dental problems, I used to have enough money to leave the country at least once a year and to travel to different states at least four times per year. But now I haven’t been on any kind of vacation in three years and I haven’t left the country in 13 years. I basically have little-to-no fun money because of these medical and dental expenses which average $1,400/month. Soon I’m going to have to get a car payment again. Plus my cat, my soul mate, is sick and needs an endoscopy to find out why, another $2,700.
Life is beyond cruel. I never would have taken Oxybutynin if they had told me the truth that I’d need dentures by age 48 if I took it.
There are 1-3 younger men on this forum with MS who claim Oxybutynin actually helps them, but doesn’t rot their teeth. I think they’ll find out later just how bad Oxybutynin is for your teeth. Most of the rest who took it say it ruined their teeth just like me. It never really helped me much so I don’t know why I kept taking it. Dental decay isn’t the only bad side effect of Oxybutynin; it can also cause premature dementia and other horrible side effects. I felt better all around when I got off of it and finally tried switching to Botox. I get no side effects whatsoever from Botox. That was one of the best choices of my life. Imagine how bad my teeth would be if I’d stayed on Oxybutynin.
By the way, to those of you considering Botox, my doctor never brought it up to me as an option. *I* had to bring it up, based on information I’d read online.
So to everyone: if you have to take Oxybutynin for a while to pass the steps to get to Botox (I had to try five medications, none of which truly helped), don’t actually take them because they all cause “dry mouth” which equals teeth rot. Just fill the prescription and pretend like you took it and tell your doctor it didn’t help. It’s a truly EVIL medication.
One thing I’m lucky about is that I somehow didn’t get gum disease, likely because I take such good care of my teeth. But man it really pisses me off that after being exceptionally good to my teeth my whole life, which they teach us will save our teeth, a medication came along and ruined all that hard work I’d done for my mouth all these years
. 