Dental help

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

A

AnnL

New
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
0
My daughter 42 years old has had katamenial epilepsy since puberty, she frequently clamps down on her teeth during her grand-mal seizures. She is now to the point where her teeth are breaking off. She wonders if she got some sort of denture or implants if they would also break when she has a seizure.
A quandary for sure, anyone have any advice or experience with this problem? :bigsmile:
 
Hi, Ann,

Welcome!

Sorry to hear about your daughter's teeth. Teeth are problematic for many people with seizures, both from clamping during seizures and because of side effects from some of the meds.

Dentists can provide a soft flexible dental guard that doesn't easily break, but it seems she'd have to wear it all the time, which may be problematic.

I'd ask her dentist about this - they have to have research on the pressure that implants or dentures can take before breaking. This can be compared to the strength of the human bite.
 
Hi Ann, welcome!

I agree with Endless, a dentist is a good place to start.

And is there a chance your daughter can get her seizures under control? Is she on meds at the moment? Catamenial epilepsy can sometimes respond to progesterone treatment -- perhaps you can ask her neuro about that option.

Best,
Nakamova
 
She takes Seasonale birth control to keep her hormones level, they have worked well in that she sometimes can go 5 months (luxury !) without a seizure.
Of course, the dental problems are from Dilantin and Tegratol she took when young.
She has an appointment with a Dentist who understands her problems, but we wondered if anyone had any problems with dentures etc., thanks for the feedback.
 
I have quite a lot of broken/damaged teeth, and at the age of 24 I already have some false teeth on a plate which I wear during the day. I have another broken tooth now, going to ask for some kind of mouthguard next time I go to the dentist. It's the only thing I can think of now to stop me being completely gummy! Mostly my (tonic clonic) seizures are nocturnal.
 
My teeth are sawed down pretty significantly from both nighttime grinding (seizures in my sleep?) and daytime clenching. I clench my teeth CONSTANTLY. I also have some weird gum tissue loss and teeth staining issues since developing epilepsy. With all the anti-seizure drugs that cause gum tissue overgrowth, this gum tissue loss MUST be significant. Here are some pictures...

PICTURE 1:

SEVERE recession of gum tissue around my lower teeth, mostly in the front. Also, note the dark brown-grey stains between the affected teeth. These stains have already appeared within a day or two of my professional dental cleanings, so there's no way they're from my smoking. I don't smoke THAT much in 2 days, and the only smoking-related staining I ever had to my teeth before this was a slight all-over yellowing...nothing major like this.

Also, note that my teeth are sawed flat from the constant clenching and grinding.

Okay, the pic...

http://postimage.org/image/175yi3750/

PICTURE 2:

This picture isn't too good because of the glare from the sun, but basically my gums dissolved around that one tooth. This area actually seems to have healed some, but obviously, the gum hasn't regrown any.

http://postimage.org/image/2d9s9qlwk/
 
LOOPYLOU:- I am originally from Blackpool !!

ELIZZA881:- My daughters teeth and gums are in very bad shape, grey, broken teeth and receeding gums, all because of meds. of course. Wish they could come up with some fool-proof anti-seizure medication that had NO side-effects. We think extraction of all her top teeth and dentures may be the answer.
 
I feel your pain. I'm 36, and have enough teeth broken, and damage to my tongue and cheeks and lips, I'm getting all my teeth pulled. They don't do anything for me except cause me pain now. I will update in a few months after all is said and done, but I'm sure they can make a soft denture from something - maybe silicone? And over my life, the cost will be easy less than all the dental work I'll have to pay for if I don't get them extracted. I say go for it! Talk to the dentist about a denture that won't hurt if bitten or accidentally swallowed (it happens). You have my sympathy, my story is remarkably similar.

Keep on smiling!
 
I went through a phase when I was breaking all my teeth from seizures. My dentist managed to fix them all up in a week, though. Since I have nocturnal TCs, a guard would be viable. Where teeth are weakened from AEDs, my dentist says a high fluoride mouth wash (over 1%) will definitely help prevent breakage. That comes with extra benefits if you get one without alcohol in it; I'm told it's really good at relieving the dry mouth that comes with some anti-convulsants. Some countries also have special high fluoride toothpaste, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom