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How Much Sooner Could You Have Been Diagnosed If The Dentist Knew About Enamel Damage ?


1desperateladysaved

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1desperateladysaved Proficient

Yesterday, I handed my dentist the paper about a connection between celiac and damage to tooth enamel.  In doing so I am hoping that many of his patients will discover they have celiac disease.  I would encourage others to do the same by printing off a copy and giving it to their dentist.

 

While I sat in the dentist chair yesterday, I analyzed just how long ago I could have been diagnosed if   the dentist knew the tooth enamel connection with celiac back then.  I lost the enamel off my teeth when I was 17 years old.  I got diagnosed when I was 48!  That makes my ignorance 31 years longer.

 

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 Could you recall how much sooner you could have been diagnosed if the tooth enamel/celiac connection had been known earlier?

 

D

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captaincrab55 Enthusiast

 

 

Reminder, Could you recall how much sooner you could have been diagnosed if the tooth enamel/celiac connection had been known earlier?

 

D

 

I could of been diagnosed in 1958 when the top surface enamel was missing on my first permanent molars.   Instead, I was diagnosed in June of 2009!

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1desperateladysaved Proficient

 

 

Wow!  I hope you give the information to your dentist in order to spare others.

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dilettantesteph Collaborator

about 40 years earlier.

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1desperateladysaved Proficient

about 40 years earlier.

uffda, anyone for less years?    I would like to see how many people were impacted and for how long.  I would like to share with my dentist when I go back in a few weeks.

 

I would also be interested if anyone has enamel problems for other reasons, but I believe asking here would probably be the wrong people to ask.  Asking anywhere else, I wouldn't get educated answers.  Hmmmm

 

 

 

D

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captaincrab55 Enthusiast

Wow!  I hope you give the information to your dentist in order to spare others.

That Dentist passed away quite awhile back.    My current Dentist is well aware.

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burdee Enthusiast

Yesterday, I handed my dentist the paper about a connection between celiac and damage to tooth enamel.  In doing so I am hoping that many of his patients will discover they have celiac disease.  I would encourage others to do the same by printing off a copy and giving it to their dentist.

 

While I sat in the dentist chair yesterday, I analyzed just how long ago I could have been diagnosed if   the dentist knew the tooth enamel connection with celiac back then.  I lost the enamel off my teeth when I was 17 years old.  I got diagnosed when I was 48!  That makes my ignorance 31 years longer.

 

Open Original Shared LinkOpen Original Shared Link

 

 

 Could you recall how much sooner you could have been diagnosed if the tooth enamel/celiac connection had been known earlier?

 

D

 

I wasn't diagnosed till i was 56.  My dentist saw the enamel damage, asked me if i threw up. He decided I was buiimic, because i was thin and threw up.   He didn't ask if I threw up to get/stay thin.  (I had terrible reflux and nausea after eating certain foods, to which I was later diagnosed with allergies and celiac disease.)  When I told my doctor that i threw up after eating certain kinds of foods (usually baked goods), she also decided I had an eating disorder and suggested I see a therapist.(My allergies were later diagnosed as gluten dairy, egg, soy, cane sugar, vanilla and nutmeg, contained in many baked goods.) When I told my therapist that I didn't force myself to throw up, but i had gut pain and nausea frequently, she told me to talk to my doc about those symptoms.  My doc had already put me in the bulimia box.  Several years later, she told me my symptoms were caused by IBS, that everybody over 40 gets that and I should learn to live with it.  I also had hypothyroid symptoms all my life (cold, low blood pressure, low pulse, constipated), but was not tested for hypothyroid,, because I wasn't overweight.  Likewise I had celiac symptoms (short, thin, bloated belly), but wasn't tested for celiac disease because I didn't have diarrhea.  Instead I had constipation, caused by Hashimoto's thyroidiitis, an autoimmune condition correlated with celiac disease. 

 

I just wish more docs could think outside the diagnositic boxes they learned in school or were given by their HMOs.

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1desperateladysaved Proficient

I wasn't diagnosed till i was 56.  My dentist saw the enamel damage, asked me if i threw up. He decided I was buiimic, because i was thin and threw up.   He didn't ask if I threw up to get/stay thin.  (I had terrible reflux and nausea after eating certain foods, to which I was later diagnosed with allergies and celiac disease.)  When I told my doctor that i threw up after eating certain kinds of foods (usually baked goods), she also decided I had an eating disorder and suggested I see a therapist.(My allergies were later diagnosed as gluten dairy, egg, soy, cane sugar, vanilla and nutmeg, contained in many baked goods.) When I told my therapist that I didn't force myself to throw up, but i had gut pain and nausea frequently, she told me to talk to my doc about those symptoms.  My doc had already put me in the bulimia box.  Several years later, she told me my symptoms were caused by IBS, that everybody over 40 gets that and I should learn to live with it.  I also had hypothyroid symptoms all my life (cold, low blood pressure, low pulse, constipated), but was not tested for hypothyroid,, because I wasn't overweight.  Likewise I had celiac symptoms (short, thin, bloated belly), but wasn't tested for celiac disease because I didn't have diarrhea.  Instead I had constipation, caused by Hashimoto's thyroidiitis, an autoimmune condition correlated with celiac disease. 

 

I just wish more docs could think outside the diagnositic boxes they learned in school or were given by their HMOs.

Are you saying, Burdee, that you were diagnosed about the time that your enamel came off your teeth?

That would be great!

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  • 1 month later...
burdee Enthusiast

Are you saying, Burdee, that you were diagnosed about the time that your enamel came off your teeth?

That would be great!

 

Nope. I was diagnosed with celiac disease many years after I suffered enamel loss. My dentist and doctors all decided that I caused the enamel problem, because they decided I was bulimic and made myself throw up.  Actually I had thrown up often in early childhood. My mother decided I had 'stomach flu'.  My childhood dentist just repaired the teeth with enamel loss without considering a cause.

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1desperateladysaved Proficient

Nope. I was diagnosed with celiac disease many years after I suffered enamel loss. My dentist and doctors all decided that I caused the enamel problem, because they decided I was bulimic and made myself throw up.  Actually I had thrown up often in early childhood. My mother decided I had 'stomach flu'.  My childhood dentist just repaired the teeth with enamel loss without considering a cause.

Yeah, they didn't know.  :(

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maggiesimpson Apprentice

Hi, D!

 

After a fairly decent dental run, 30+ years with a couple cavities and an appliance as a kid and then a couple cavities during a six year dental hiatus, I suddenly appeared with 4 cavities which surprised my dentist and the assistants. They have come to know me for having excellent check-ups. These cavities were found around the same time I was officially diagnosed with crohn's. I told them of the diagnosis and they said that explained it and gave me a high fluoride toothpaste and encouraged me to be diligent with my oral care. They did not think the gluten intolerance was as big a factor as the crohn's.

 

The problem of absorbing nutrients in the gut is a big factor in dental issues, be it crohn's or celiac related. Now that I am on a whole foods diet (gluten-free and acd) I am using my energy to digest the nutrients rather than a few nutrients with a bunch of processed junk, as I did when eating before this diet. I hope to not have to have any more dental work, but who knows.

 

Maggie

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mommida Enthusiast

I remember the dentist commenting on "gum boils" when I was about 4.  The dentist was quite upset and warned my parents that something was a miss. Cavaties from missing enamel.   I really was not that symptomatic as a child.  I didn't look that thin because of belly bloating. 

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stef-the-kicking-cuty Enthusiast

I was diagnosed with celiac 5 days before my 28th birthday. Flashback to 21, my first painful symptoms started after a toothsurgery. Flashback again to when I was 14/15. That was the time I received braces and with them a multitude of cavities. Because most of my cavities are from that time we assumed it was, because of the difficulty brushing your teeth, when having braces. Never in a million years would I have made the connection. Thanks!

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