I always tell the story of how, before diagnosis of lupus, I had a severe pain in my jaw and my dentist said that I needed root canal work. A couple of weeks after the procedure I still had the exact same pain. I was referred to a dentist in Harley Street who also couldn’t work out what was wrong, so I’d spent a lot of money on unnecessary dental work (not to mention the pain). In retrospect it was likely to have been lupus related not dental, but it was never suggested that I should seek advice from my GP.

I was probably not as good as I could have been about getting check ups and visiting the hygienist, but I’ve always been meticulous about brushing/flossing/mouth wash etc. Dentists are expensive and as there was little by way of plaque to remove from my teeth I did only visit every 12 months, sometimes longer.

So begins my confession. I bought a new electric toothbrush and used one of several heads provided. After a couple of days I decided that the one I was using was too hard as I noticed that a little lump had appeared by one of my back teeth. I thought it was likely caused by the toothbrush irritating the gum so ignored it, especially as I had no pain in the area.

The lump seemed to get worse and I was due to see a dentist so booked an appointment. The dentist wasn’t sure what was going on but said it may be an infection, the way that would be dealt with would be root canal surgery. There was a little shadow on the x-ray but nothing that proved conclusively that it was an infection. Of course with my previous experience I was a bit reluctant to go ahead immediately, so it was decided to leave it and see what happened.

Coincidentally as this all commenced I started to feel unwell, there wasn’t a bit of my body that wasn’t screaming. I started to get headaches and earaches, which I rarely have and really painful back ache, again something that I rarely have issues with. One day I woke up and I couldn’t move for the excruciating back pain and I’d done absolutely nothing to cause it. I was also feeling more tired than is usual for me. This went on for weeks before I conceded defeat and decided to go ahead with the root canal as it was also now aching and along with all the other pains it was one thing too much to deal with.

I’m not worried about visiting dentists really, but I knew my previous root canal was painful. I can now report that this time it wasn’t, at all, there wasn’t even a needle involved, which shows how much treatment has progressed since my last root canal and afterwards I had no pain either.

Now for the moral of my story. Since the procedure the other aches and pains have started to remit. They didn’t disappear overnight, but they are definitely getting much better. The headaches/earaches went almost immediately, the joint aches have pretty much gone back to their normal level, in some areas they have gone altogether. All that’s left is an occasional twinge in my back and that’s pretty much it.

Incase anyone is wondering, the symptoms I am describing didn’t seem like my usual lupus flare, well certainly not one that I’ve experienced before in over 25 years, so the link between the infection and the symptoms wasn’t immediately obvious. I also have osteoarthritis now so it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish which illness is acting up and causing issues. It might even be that the infection was triggering a reaction from both.

Since this happened to me I’ve been looking at a lot of research showing links between dental issues/dental infection and other conditions and it’s clear there is a strong link. The bacteria can enter your bloodstream causing inflammation in your blood vessels and possibly clots, even heart issues and strokes, thinking about it logically it makes perfect (but horrifying) sense. So what appears to be a minor dental issue can become something much more severe and in the worst case scenario even life threatening.

I wanted to confess all this and have to say that I will never again think that any dental (or any other infection) issue I have is a minor one, I have truly learnt my lesson and hope this helps others not to be silly like me and ignore anything like this. I am the Worlds best behaved patient now having dental check ups and hygienist appointments twice a year like clockwork!

Update June 2022.

I was having a bit of pain at the site of the root canal and after a week I went to the dentist to see what they thought was causing it. As I have experience of pain caused by lupus rather than an actual tooth I thought that was the reason but it was safer to check.

After investigating the dentist discovered she had missed a small amount of the infection and eventually this was causing me pain, so I had to have the root canal repeated!

The reason I’m updating this is that coincidentally I have had several flares over several months prior to the tooth aching again, which is unusual for me, they were also very bad (but thankfully short lived). My whole body including my stomach was involved and my arthritis seemed to also flare up. I had absolutely no idea why this was happening and I am now wondering whether that small amount of infection that was missed had caused the chaos. I am now waiting to see what happens. Everything seems relatively calm so I will be very interested to see if things reman that way and I will update this article.

Professor David D’Cruz from the Louise Coote Lupus Unit at Guys Hospital said the following:

“Patients with SLE on immune suppressing treatments, especially corticosteroids, are more prone to infections. There is a risk that an infection can trigger a lupus flare. The general advice is to seek medical attention if symptoms of an infection develop and not to delay treatment”.

Click here to watch a short video from Professor D’Cruz on lupus and oral issues.

Lupus and oral issues facts

• People with lupus are more likely to suffer from gum disease than most..

• Up to 45 percent of patients experience mouth sores, one of the most common lupus symptoms. Mouth (and nose) ulcers commonly occur during a lupus flare, once the flare settles the ulcers usually also disappear again.

• Dry mouth is often associated with lupus as well, but more commonly caused by the side effects of many medications.

Angie Davidson

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