Chewing aspirin over a prolonged period could severely damage your teeth, according to a case study in this month’s issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA).
“Aspirin can cause severe damage to both the hard and soft tissues of the mouth,” said researchers from the University of Maryland Dental School, Baltimore.
“Dentists should counsel and educate patients and other health care practitioners about the dangers to both hard and soft oral tissues from chewing aspirin,” they added.
The researchers presented two cases of enamel erosion attributed to daily chewing of multiple aspirin tablets on a long-term basis.
In the first case, a 52-year-old woman presented herself at a facial pain center, complaining of temporomandibular joint (jaw) pain. She had avoided dental care for about 10 years and needed comprehensive dental treatment. The patient stated that she had been taking four to eight aspirin tablets a day for one to two years to relieve headaches. She typically held the aspirin tablets on the tooth surfaces and crushed them until they dissolved.
The researchers said all of her teeth needed dental treatment, but the amount and pattern of dental erosion were unusual. They observed severe erosion on almost all tooth surfaces, but the tooth surfaces most often in contact with aspirin had eroded the most.