10 years ago, I struggled with the “winter blues”, a type of depression called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It would start in mid-November with a day or two of feeling down, and by Christmas Eve I was having “black cloud” days, one after another. I could “feel” a black cloud hovering over my head as I got up in the morning. All day long, wherever I went and whatever I did, that black cloud sucked up all my good feelings, leaving me feeling helpless and hopeless. I stopped eating, felt tired and sad all the time, and could barely get through the holiday activities or my days at work. At home, I cried a lot. Every year it got worse and worse, until finally I went to my doctor, who started me on an antidepressant.
Within a week after beginning the medicine, I started feeling more like myself, and over the next few weeks the black cloud slowly evaporated and my appetite and energy level recovered.
The medicine helped me feel almost normal except for one thing: my mouth always seemed dry. If I tried to talk, after a couple of sentences my throat would get tickly and scratchy. I’d cough and have to stop talking until I “wet my whistle”. Some days I drank so much water I wondered if I was going to grow a hump.
To help me keep talking during presentations without having to stop every few minutes to cough and sip, I started chewing gum, looking more like Elsie the Cow or Pete Carroll on the Seahawk sidelines than a clinical instructor delivering a lecture.
If you’d given me a choice between going back to my “black cloud” days and having a dry mouth, I wouldn’t have dared stop the medicine that was keeping me going. But when my eyes started burning, I spoke up and asked my doctor to taper me off the antidepressant. Within a month the black cloud came back and my appetite took a nosedive, so we restarted the medication. Things went okay for the next few months but the burning of my eyes finally drove me to see my eye doctor.
After finishing her examination, my eye doctor sat down next to me and confirmed what I had suspected: my eyes were too dry. Not only that, but my corneas were not getting enough moisture and were beginning to show damage.
“You don’t have a normal level of tears,” she explained. “If something isn’t done soon, your vision will be permanently damaged.” I was able to get wax plugs in my tear ducts, to keep my tear fluid from draining out so quickly. My eyes immediately felt better. Then, after not having a cavity in years, my routine dental checkup revealed accelerated gum disease and 2 new cavities. I felt like my body was falling apart. Today, the connection is clear: side effects from medications like dry mouth are not just an minor annoyance. Your gums, teeth and eyes can also be at risk.
Tapering off my antidepressant again, this time I did some research and installed full spectrum lights: long fluorescent bulbs in my office at work and incandescent ones at home to help my body “get more sunshine”, especially during the dark winter months. That little jade plant in my office that had never seemed to do anything? After installing my new lights it turned a beautiful deep green, doubled in size and outgrew its pot in less than 2 months!
One of the most devastating side effects of taking medicines is dry mouth. Saliva is not just “drool”. It has vital antibacterial properties. A healthy adult makes about a liter and a half of saliva every day, rich in minerals that help your teeth resist decay and keep your gums healthy.
According to the Academy of General Dentistry, the most common cause of dry mouth is prescription and non-prescription medications, and 30% of Americans over the age of 65 have dry mouth. With over 500 prescription and non-prescription medications containing ingredients that can cause dry mouth, if you suffer from it, speak up and tell your doctor or pharmacist.
There’s more about dry mouth at the Academy of General Dentistry’s consumer website www.KnowYourTeeth.com, in their reference section under D (for dry mouth).
