Straight Teeth in Less Time

Three Tips For Protecting Your Oral Health During Chemotherapy Treatment

24 January 2019

Lois Murray

If you're diagnosed with cancer, your doctor may recommend you go through chemotherapy to eradicate the disease. However, this treatment can cause a variety of uncomfortable and even harmful side effects to manifest, some of which may negatively impact your teeth and gums. Here are three tips for keeping your mouth healthy while undergoing chemo.

Prevent Dry Mouth from Settling In

The most common complication people partaking in chemotherapy experience is dry mouth. The medication used in chemotherapy is designed to kill cancer, but unfortunately, those chemicals can't distinguish between cancer cells and healthy cells that behave similarly to cancer cells. Specifically, the meds target fast-growing cells, but the cells in the mouth also grow quickly and, thus, are often destroyed too. This can result in damage to your salivary glands, reducing the amount of saliva they produce and causing you to develop chronic dry mouth.

Chronic dry mouth is problematic for a few reasons. Not only is it uncomfortable, but the lack of saliva—which is necessary for removing food debris and bacteria—also increases your risk of developing cavities and oral infections; both of which can be detrimental to your health since chemotherapy inhibits proper immune system function.

Thus, you'll have to be proactive in keeping your mouth moist. Drinking water on a regular basis and sucking on ice chips can be immensely helpful with washing away excess bacteria and leftover food. Chewing sugar-free gum and sucking on sugar-free hard candies throughout the day can stimulate your natural saliva production. Avoiding hot, spicy foods, tobacco, and alcoholic and caffeinated beverages is also beneficial, since these items only dry your mouth out more.

If these simple measures don't help or the problem worsens, talk to your dentist about a prescription for artificial saliva. However, talk to your healthcare provider before using it to ensure it won't interfere with other medications you may be taking.

Wait to Clean Your Teeth

Nausea is another common side effect of chemotherapy, and you may find yourself vomiting on a more frequent basis. This is bad for your oral health because stomach acid can aggravate gum tissue and destroy the tooth enamel.

While you'll want to clean your mouth after vomiting to remove any leftover acid and get rid of the bad taste, you don't want to brush too soon after. Among other things, acids soften tooth enamel enough that small amounts of it can be removed via brushing, which can result in significant damage to teeth over a long period of time.

It's recommended that you wait at least 30 minutes to brush your teeth after they've been in contact with something acidic. Instead, rinse your mouth with water or a medicated mouthwash to clean it after throwing up and then floss and brush later to remove any leftover acid or debris.

If you find you're vomiting an excessive amount, talk to your healthcare provider about using an anti-nausea medication to help alleviate this symptom.

Choose Your Foods Wisely

Because of the change chemotherapy does to oral tissues, they can be more easily damaged by certain foods that normally wouldn't cause you can problems. For instance, hot coffee may aggravate dry mouth and burn the sensitive tissues. Sharp foods like chips may more easily cut gums and inner cheeks, which may increase your risk of an infection and just make eating that much more uncomfortable.

It's advisable to stick to soft, moisture-rich foods while you're doing chemotherapy. Cold or lukewarm oatmeal, soft-boiled eggs, mashed potatoes, and yogurt are examples of good options. Smoothies and purees are also a good way to take in fruits, vegetables, and other foods without damaging your teeth and gums.

For more tips on protecting your oral health while undergoing cancer treatment, talk to your family dentist.

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