Mouth problems

[Choupy]

Hello,

I would like to share with you a few problems I had, and still have to much less extent, with my mouth not only to get advice from you but also because this testimonial may be useful to people who might undergo similar events.

Slightly more than 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with a lichen planus by a dermatologist specialising in mucous membranes. After he made me take prick tests at a hospital, this specialist instructed me to stop using all toothpaste for good, as the specific ingredient I was allergic to couldn’t be identified – probably too costly – and to use instead sodium bicarbonate diluted in water in which I had to dunk the toothbrush. So, for 13 years, I used only this product to wash my teeth.

Afterwards, I had twice thrush probably caused by one of the inhalers I used for another health problem. The typical consequence of this health problem is that you cannot eat anything. But fortunately, the treatment was each time successful.

In 2021, for the first time, I had a tooth out because of a major tooth decay. I realised long after that the cause of this event was probably the dermatologist’s recommended teeth-washing method.

Last summer and for more than a month, while I resided in a place hit by a heatwave, I had a problem in my mouth: I was feeling a dry mouth and a discomfort in my mouth during all meals, with the bites being not ready to be swallowed. This phenomenon started with some vegetables, particularly green salad, to widespread to all food…

To such a point that I couldn’t eat anything and made the transition to Clinutren – a Nestle product sold in chemists ’shops and a nutritionally complete, high-protein, high-calorie food with a cream consistency made for sick persons to replace meals and sold by chemists ’shops – eating this product during several days at each meal, including breakfast, because it was the only way to feed myself. I gave it up only at a general practitioner’s insistent request. Then, little by little, I ate again more or less normally.

Just before this occurred, I had taken the initiative not to comply with the dermatologist’s prescription (for the first time in 12 years) by using – during a week – an organic toothpaste I chose due to the short list of ingredients.

Therefore, I wonder if this event was due to the toothpaste I had used, extreme heat or thrush.

The general practitioners I then consulted didn’t know what I had and gave me a treatment for thrush because I had mentioned I had it in the past. An ENT specialist believed this was caused by gastrooesophageal reflux disease and prescribed me tablets, which I didn’t take – because I was certain it wasn’t a gastric problem.

‘Luckily,’ during the following months, I had a skin problem – spots in the neck – which led my general practitioner to refer me to a dermatologist. I reported to her what had occurred in my mouth. Therefore, she took a look at it and told me that it was a lichen planus. She prescribed me to do mouthwashes with prednisolone. I have been using this drug for three months and I have to use it for another three-month-period because, at my recent visit, she said the lichen planus was still there, although I felt an improvement.

Today, I decided to make another experiment with another toothpaste with only a few ingredients. My goal is to avoid losing other teeth because of tooth decay.

Do you think I am right to try another toothpaste? Is there another solution to avoid tooth decay and another eruption of lichen planus, which is a lifelong skin disease and a minor problem with huge potential impact?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kind regards,

Choupy