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Can't Enjoy Eating Anymore

M

MoonRabbit

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
41
Location
Usa
Ever since I started this journey I no longer enjoy food or drink. Whenever I have to eat all I think about is how it will eventually ruin my teeth one way or the other. Before, I would always look forward to my morning cup of coffee. But now all I think about is the acidity and sugar that is so bad for my teeth. I can no longer sit and sip with a relaxing enjoyment but rather gulp it down as fast as I can so it's not on my teeth for a long period of time. Then I immediately use a waterpik to get the film off.


I dont know if this is from my anxiety going into overdrive or I'm developing an ocd with oral health. Have any of you went a little overboard with these thoughts in the beginning? Will they eventually settle?
 
Moonrabbit,

I don’t know what your dental issues are but believe me, I can related. My anxiety is through the roof and my appetite has been non-existent the last few days. My stomach will growl for food but I literally can’t eat. I have periodontal disease and will probably be referred to a periodontist when I see my dentist in two weeks. I really don’t know what to expect. I know the prognosis isn’t good but I would be so relieved just to hear that if this is monitored every 3 months and my hygiene is nearly perfect, that I will be able to keep my teeth— at least for a while. They don’t move, they don’t hurt, they seem fine, but it’s my gums.

Sorry to hijack your post. But I Can relate to what you’re going through
 
Dear MoonRabbit,

just replied to your previous post about the filling and felt so happy that things are settling for you. Sorry to read about your difficulties with eating.

It is not unusual to have increased anxiety and obsess about teeth in one way or another if you are dealing with dental fear and also have a current dental issue that kept you busy for some time. I can relate to this as well. Once your dental situation settles you might find yourself thinking about your teeth less and getting back to normality. By the way I had eaten an orange yesterday. It was my first piece of fruit since one year. I stopped eating fruit because I feared it would damage my teeth. I believe deeply inside it's just hoping not to have to see a dentist again so trying to avoid anything that could damage teeth.

Avoiding reading and getting input abut teeth is sometimes helpful. For me that's the times I stop reading or going online or discussing teeth in my free time. At another times I find gaining information helpful - knowing exactly how tooth decay and oral hygiene works is helpful too. It might be a good idea to think of what would be good for you right now. If you find that getting some more information is the right way, you will find great articles in the dental info section. It might reassure you that having a cup of coffee in the morning and enjoying it, even if it's with sugar, is ok.:friends:

All the best wishes and keep us posted
 
I can relate. I had so many dental surgeries this summer that eating became a chore. I could only eat liquids at first, and stuff that I didn't have to chew. Then, finally after several months, I was able to chew on one side. Then the other. Then, my molars started hurting and I stopped chewing on the left again. I know that chewing didn't cause my molars to "go bad", but I can't get my brain to be rational.

I lost almost 20 lbs this fall from not being able to chew. I am also afraid to eat citrus, due to the acidity.

I have been slowly trying to enjoy foods more. I used to enjoy coffee as well, and now I mix a half cup of coffee with almond milk to cut back on the acidity. I have switched from sugar to honey in my coffee and tea. I completely cut out any carbonated drinks.

I have tried to be proactive, but still find ways to enjoy food.
 
Me too!! I have braces and so I have to go for cleanings and checkups often. Ever since I.had my last cleaning (which hurt like hell) and found out I have two cavities ive been avoiding all my favorite sugary acidic foods. All foods I just look at now and think this is decay waiting to happen. I honestly left that cleaning so shaken up/anxious/depressed. I was even thinking it would be better to get all my teeth pulled and get implants or dentures. But most of my teeth are healthy so I dont think anyone would pull out my teeth. Ive also been looking into laser dentistry. Idk why theyre still using the drills and the tools for cleanings when we have lasers.now that can do the job. So frustrating were in 2019!! We should have painless dentistry.
 
In defence of coffee, it's actually not particularly acidic in terms of pH (a pH of 5, which is only minimally erosive and similar to sparkling water). I think the confusion arises because coffee stimulates the secretion of gastric (stomach) acid, and in some people causes acid reflex (which does have a negative impact on tooth enamel). But for most people, I would have thought that coffee (with an artificial sweetener rather than sugar) is a perfectly safe drink?

There's a good article which lists lots of drinks and their acidity levels in the American Dental Association's Journal :)
 
WoW.. This is an interesting article Letsconnect. just tapped into it, being curious and never would have thought that the flavored water and sports drinks seem to be more erosive than coke and such.. I better readjust.. here I thought I was being a bit better with my acid drinking ..
 
In defence of coffee, it's actually not particularly acidic in terms of pH (a pH of 5, which is only minimally erosive and similar to sparkling water). I think the confusion arises because coffee stimulates the secretion of gastric (stomach) acid, and in some people causes acid reflex (which does have a negative impact on tooth enamel). But for most people, I would have thought that coffee (with an artificial sweetener rather than sugar) is a perfectly safe drink?

Yes! My dentist told me giving up sparkling and flavored water was better than giving up coffee. I already had given up soda at that point.

I mix almond milk in my coffee more for a healing ulcer than worrying about the effect on my teeth. The dentist said coffee stains more than it erodes (unless you are drinking 5 plus cups a day).
 
In defence of coffee, it's actually not particularly acidic in terms of pH (a pH of 5, which is only minimally erosive and similar to sparkling water). I think the confusion arises because coffee stimulates the secretion of gastric (stomach) acid, and in some people causes acid reflex (which does have a negative impact on tooth enamel). But for most people, I would have thought that coffee (with an artificial sweetener rather than sugar) is a perfectly safe drink?

I believe there is nothing safe about sweetners, in my opinion sugar is far better.
 
I'm not sure what your argument is re sweetener but I've been using it for as long as I can remember as it was introduced to me as a child and I maybe use sugar in drinks a few times a year. I'm just going to leave a link here to the NHS advice on sweetener so people can make a more informed decision on if they'd like to try cutting down their sugar this way. Just an aside, I've never had a cavity or filling despite several years of dental avoidance, there may be a link there to using sweetener but my evidence is only anecdotal.

 
Hi MoonRabbit,

I believe that reading the relevant information to your concerns will really lessen the anxieties around it. Letsconnect has given a very good piece of information and there is much more.
Here is my 5 cent contribution: when it comes to acidity as well as sugar, the quantities do not really matter, but the frequency.

In addition, I think that too many dental health providers use too much the "guilt" and "self-blaming" buttons, hence saying often to the patient: "you should..." or "you have to..."
They might mean well; to motivate the patient to change their habits, but they might sounds blaming and can also provoke emotions such as guilt which results in lack of cooperation.
 
Thank you Dr Daniel, this is so well said and true.
 
Thanks for all the responses. I know I'm overthinking this. My diet isn't that bad, I only have one cup of coffee in the morning and I have always only ate once a day. I drink more than enough water and haven't had soda in years. I was just horrified by finding out I have 6 cavities with 4 of them being in between my front teeth. But I guess rather than being scared to eat I should blame my previously bad flossing habit and eating disorder.

It can be hard to believe I let myself get to this point, but I'm trying to push forward so I dont crash back down, I dont want to fear food again.
 
What a surprise my comments keep vanishing.
 
Hi Tazey, you sent me a request via private message asking me to delete them so I did. I left one of them because another poster had replied to it, and deleting it would have rendered their reply non-sensical.

Please check out the link above (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/are-sweeteners-safe/) which provides detailed information about peer-reviewed, large scale studies into the effects of artificial sweeteners on the human body.

If you are still concerned about artificial sweeteners, you could try Stevia.
 
No I asked you to stop editing my words as that's not what I originally wrote. All sweetners are bad including stevia not too mention taste vile so I'll pass thanks.
 
I thought this would be about having a painful teeth that stops you from enjoying the mealtimes, because the pleasure from food is mixed with the pain of the tooth. I have this kind of front tooth, so almost anything I do with my lips or other teeth (like chewing with back teeth) usually hurts, sometimes a lot. So I can't freely enjoy a pizza anymore, I noticed. I had to cut it to very tiny pieces, and caaarefully place them in my mouth without touching the front tooth (and often failed, ouch), and then try to chew with the least pain-inducing way - it's impossible to eat completely painlessly, but I was able to minimize the pain, and although the first bites really hurt, the last ones almost didn't anymore. Either the tooth got used to being constantly punched by pizza slices and didn't care anymore, or I somehow learned to be more skillful in optimizing the chewing experience.

Having said that, I have also experienced what you describe, even today. I was in a grocery store, my tooth was hurting a bit, as it often does (and I saw a dentist today, he said he can't do anything about the tooth, as I have a gum disease that has eaten even the bone a lot, let alone my gums away, so there's not enough bone to hold the tooth properly in place, etc.. there are no cavities or anything, so nothing can be done, except to pull out the tooth (eek!), and I am still consiering whether to do it or not), looking at all the shelves full of delicious food I can never touch again. Chocolate cookies were especially sad to walk by - I used to like those things.

But almost anything I saw around me, even if I could theoretically or practically eat it, started giving me a bit of anxiety; 'what if I can't eat that, either', and 'that might hurt my tooth' and 'that might make my gums worse' were common thoughts, and it started feeling like there's a mountain of food I can't touch anymore (let alone eat), and my world was collapsing and shrinking into something so very tiny, and taking so much joy out of life.

Previously, food was a matter of 'what I choose (for one reason or another)' out of a vast collection.

Now it's a scary hunt through a plethora of 'non-edibles' to find at least something that wouldn't hurt my tooth and that wouldn't damage my tooth or gums, so most food items become quite scary indeed.

Last week, I happily bought a lot of food, because I could finally afford it - and now it's just going to waste, my shelves are full of things I used to like, and now I am just sadly looking at it all, thinking I can't eat it anymore. I don't even dare eat oranges, because there might be some kind of acid in them.

It's sad to have a tooth problem, so I sympathize with you. I hope you can find someone with this same ailment, so you can go grocery shopping together, and fear food together.
 
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