was there "meth mouth" before the modern lower class, illegal meth culture?

[code_grey]

AFAIK amphetamines were widely used by regular people before it got outlawed, e.g. by the military personnel of WW2 and as diet pills for awhile after the war.

Are there indications in popular culture or scientific research of the time that lots of people had messed up teeth because of that?

If there are no such indications, should this be attributed to chemical differences between modern meth and the substances that were used back then? Or to low quality of home cooked amphetamines as opposed to factory produced drugs? Or to lower doses of use by normal people in legit circumstances as opposed to junkies willing to brave government persecution? Or is the whole issue overblown by propaganda lies even today?

[Shagnasty]

You are comparing two different forms of use. Pharmaceutical grade amphetamines were typically taken in pill form before street meth became popular. Serious drug addiction has a tendency to mess with your hygiene habits and health in general but that isn't the main cause of the really bad cases of dental problems associated with meth. Meth can be used in several forms but addicts tend to progress to smoking it. Inhaled meth is extremely caustic and wreaks havoc your teeth, gums, tongue, and throat. Think of replacing your normal mouthwash with Draino and that is the basic idea. Meth addiction also causes saliva glands to dry up and removes the normal protective mechanisms of the mouth. Meth addiction also causes extreme teeth grinding which wears down enamel and can even cause a misaligned bite or even broken teeth. Combine that with nutrition problems and a healthy dose "don't don't give a shit anymore" and a meth addict's mouth gets unhealthy very quickly.

The whole issue isn't overblown. Schools used to warn kids about drugs like marijuana and LSD by using hyperbole and urban legends so people stopped listening to the warnings. Then, meth showed up across small towns all over the U.S. and it was all they ever warned about plus some. It is a drug straight from the scariest depths of hell.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

It's called "trench mouth" outside of Meth use, originated in WW1, and still applicable today in poorly developed areas, according to Mayo Clinic.

[code_grey]

so will part of the problem go away if meth addicts swallow it instead of smoking it?

To reiterate my OP question, if nowadays meth does all this bad stuff like causing saliva to dry up and teeth to grind, why didn't all these things happen to normal people who took amphetamines in the past, before criminalization?

Is the problem primarily in "meth" itself, as distinct from the other, safer amphetamine compounds? Or is it some other possible option I enumerated in OP? Or something else so far not mentioned in the thread?

[Captain Amazing]

Originally Posted by code_grey

To reiterate my OP question, if nowadays meth does all this bad stuff like causing saliva to dry up and teeth to grind, why didn't all these things happen to normal people who took amphetamines in the past, before criminalization?

Because when you take amphetamines in pill form, it just goes straight to your stomach where it's digested, and doesn't come into contact with your teeth or gums. When you smoke meth, you're holding acrid smoke in your mouth, and that causes the damage.

[Shagnasty]

Originally Posted by Captain Amazing

Because when you take amphetamines in pill form, it just goes straight to your stomach where it's digested, and doesn't come into contact with your teeth or gums. When you smoke meth, you're holding acrid smoke in your mouth, and that causes the damage.

Right. Regular amphetamines are pharmaceutical drugs made with real quality control standards. They can cause serious problem's through addiction but that is mere child's play compared to street meth. There are plenty of documentaries and informative articles about how street meth is made on the web so look those up if you want to know the horror show that it is. The manufacturing of it is an incredibly dangerous process on its own and kills many people through explosions every year. The ingredients and recipes vary according to the availability of the base components which are being heavily restricted through laws and retail procedures like purchase logs. The essential components are usually obtained by doing complex home chemistry on over the counter cold medications by people that are likely under the influence themselves and don't even have a decent education of any sort.

Inhalation is the fastest and most direct route for drug administration. It literally works in seconds and introduces severe addition potential plus it introduces the harmful affects of taking caustic smoke composed of questionable ingredients through the mouth and lungs and straight into the bloodstream. That is a bad recipe overall. The active molecules may be very similar but you are comparing two very things.

[Antigen]

Originally Posted by SeaDragonTattoo

It's called "trench mouth" outside of Meth use, originated in WW1, and still applicable today in poorly developed areas, according to Mayo Clinic.

But that has nothing at all to do with meth - it's a bacterial infection.

[code_grey]

interestingly enough, the wikipedia article says that during WW2 the military were swallowing specifically meth, not any other amphetamine:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meth#World_War_II

One of the earliest uses of methamphetamine was during World War II, when it was used by Axis and Allied forces.[87] The German and Finnish militaries dispensed it under the trademark name Pervitin. It was widely distributed across rank and division, from elite forces to tank crews and aircraft personnel, with many millions of tablets being distributed throughout the war.[88]
....
In Japan, methamphetamine was sold under the registered trademark of Philopon (ヒロポン, hiropon?) by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for civilian and military use. As with the rest of the world at the time, the side effects of methamphetamine were not well studied, and regulation was not seen as necessary.

so, it would appear, millions of middle class men took the pills, did not become addicted and did not ruin their teeth. Or, at least, did not ruin them significantly enough for the establishment to notice.

[Tom Tildrum]

Originally Posted by code_grey

interestingly enough, the wikipedia article says that during WW2 the military were swallowing specifically meth, not any other amphetamine:

If you follow the link to the book Wikipedia cites for that point, you'll find that it says only that one or two sources stated that methamphetamine was given to German panzer divisions, and that other militaries used benzedrine.

[Ambivalid]

Originally Posted by code_grey

interestingly enough, the wikipedia article says that during WW2 the military were swallowing specifically meth, not any other amphetamine:

so, it would appear, millions of middle class men took the pills, did not become addicted and did not ruin their teeth. Or, at least, did not ruin them significantly enough for the establishment to notice.

It seems like you are kind of missing the points made here. "Meth mouth" came about as a side effect of a COLLECTION of dangerous and harmful attributes of home-made meth abuse, which has quickly and insidiously wreaked havoc on much of middle America. It's not any one factor, and that is what it seems like you are looking for. The military didn't have that similar "collection of dangerous attributes" in terms of it's methamphetamine use during WWII.

[Toxylon]

Originally Posted by code_grey

interestingly enough, the wikipedia article says that during WW2 the military were swallowing specifically meth, not any other amphetamine:

so, it would appear, millions of middle class men took the pills, did not become addicted and did not ruin their teeth. Or, at least, did not ruin them significantly enough for the establishment to notice.

Well, not everyone got addicted but thousands did. There was a slew of veteran drug addicts in the aforementioned countries after WW II directly attributable to the wartime introduction to the stuff, AFAIK.

[Toxylon]

Late to edit:

Even really bad teeth were not nearly as conspicuous back then as they are now, with many post-war people (like my parents) losing their teeth and receiving dentures at an early age due to poor oral hygiene, nutrition and dentistry practices, meth use or no meth use.

[AntiCoyote]

Another thing to add, is virtually no places will fix a tooth for free, but you can usually find some place to have the tooth pulled for free. Addicts aren't likely to have dental insurance.


This also contributes. I knew of people strung out that would have toothaches and get the tooth pulled. This isn't good as your teeth are already rotting and when you pull a tooth and don't replace it with a fake one of some sort, everything in your mouth shifts and that just cause decay even faster.

[code_grey]

Originally Posted by Toxylon

Well, not everyone got addicted but thousands did. There was a slew of veteran drug addicts in the aforementioned countries after WW II directly attributable to the wartime introduction to the stuff, AFAIK.

got it, that makes sense.

So whereas it's not clear how much damage to the teeth occurred (possibly not all that much, but maybe some did occur without attracting much notice), it is a matter of public record that some nontrivial percentage of the users ended up with a long term addiction.