Can You Pass the MS Dental Sobriety Test? - Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Information, and resources

Published Jul 11, 2014

After I woke and completed my morning inventory this soft Irish day, I let the Wheatens out for their morning pee, took care of that myself, and then brushed the sleep and the garlic of last night’s Caesar salad from my teeth. It’s a fairly routine thing we do – brushing our teeth – and then again, it isn’t.

Fine and gross motor skills, fatigue, spasm, swallowing issues, even medications can all have an impact on our daily oral hygiene routines and overall dental health with MS.

I know that I don’t brush the way I once did. I don’t floss the same. I don’t even use the same oral hygiene products of my pre- (and early) MS days.

How many toothbrushes have ended up on the floor? How many times have I nearly put an eye out? How often haven’t I jabbed or scraped cheek or gum when MS spasms hit at toothbrushing time?

When my fine motor skills take a hit, holding the brush, manipulating floss, even squeezing the tube of toothpaste can seem like failing some dental sobriety test.

Fatigue can make even getting to the loo for a pee seem like a Herculean task. Brushing, flossing, scraping, polishing, rinsing… Yeah, that’s not happening on one of those days.

And what about swallowing issues? Some recommend that people with swallowing problems not use fluoride toothpastes due to long-term ingestion dangers.

Medications can cause excessive dry mouth that can rot teeth. Mobility and transportation concerns may make getting to the dentist low on the priority list. Trigeminal pain caused by MS can make the thought of putting something like floss or toothbrush into our mouth a fret of a whole other kind.

We may not think of how our MS could be affecting our oral health, but a decade-old study published by the Multiple Sclerosis Trust shows that it is a concern, that we do have problems, and that we should consider our oral health more closely.

When’s the last time you visited the dentist? Do you have issues performing routine oral hygiene? What barriers (or potential problems) to proper oral health do you find in multiple sclerosis?

Have a great weekend and let’s try to keep those toothbrushes out of our eyes, shall we?

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers,

Trevis