Does dental health matter?

[EpiphanySoul1]

Hi all, I’ve been on this road a few years now with several failed IVF’s. I had a consult with a fertility guru person who suggested that dental health might be stopping me getting pregnant. I have always had bad teeth - inherited from my mother! Multiple fillings, root canals etc. Started grinding my teeth from stress and now have receding gums and more fragile teeth. However most of my fillings etc are quite new - only a few years old and I went to the dentist in Jan and he said all looked fine. This woman said there might be hidden infection etc getting into my bloodstream.

I found a dentist who actually does a holistic look at you and will do scans, remove and replace fillings however it’s a 4 hour drive away and no doubt will be very expensive on top of the cost of ivf and all the supplements etc.

Has anyone gotten pregnant with not great teeth? Or heard of dental health causing ivf failure?

It just seems like another thing on a long list! And I’m tired but then also don’t want to be using up embryos on transfers if something like this is going to make an impact....

Any advise appreciated!

@EpiphanySoul1 hmm I am not so sure about that one, maybe if you had abscesses and severe gum disease, but I can’t follow how there would be any impact on fertility from the kind of dentistry issues you’ve described. There is evidence that the microflora in the uterus is important, but I doubt your mouth would have any impact on that, you can explore the flora more with an EMMA and ALICE. I’ve also had bruxism for a number of years, I been referred to max fac in the past and ended up seeing a specialist and having an £850 mouth guard made that I wear overnight. The other option would be to have Botox into the muscles around the joints of the jaw, which I am holding off from while TTC. I don’t think the tooth grinding would affect fertility, I worry that the stress that causes it might though.

I'm sorry @EpiphanySoul1 but I have to say, I think that what you have been told is a load of crap. As far as I'm aware, nothing that happens in your mouth will stop you conceiving, and I find it very troubling that someone is peddling that misinformation x

@FingersXssd83 I agree! We are so vulnerable in this journey, it’s so easy to be drawn in towards people who say they can help, very sad that people take advantage.

I've only ever heard of extremely poor periodontal health increasing risk for heart dresses slightly.

You need to do a lot more research cause it smells like bullshit to me.

@EpiphanySoul1 I've never heard of this however I do not have any fillings at all and had several failed rounds so not sure I believe it!

What a load of rubbish

An allied health professional once told me that it was important to floss because if you don't your body is constantly fighting germs and infection which inhibits its ability to perform optimally. I didn't believe this at all, yet I floss religiously. It is on my list of shit I've tried to get pregnant even though I know it's utter crap. We're so desperate to find the one peculiar thing preventing pregnancy that we'll try anything just in case! I think the having "unexplained infertility" might make this worse.

Thanks all, I was hoping this would be the consensus. I don’t have the energy to start driving 4 hours for dental treatment and searching for hidden infections! 🙈 on top of everything else but I just worry I could be doing more / stopping us getting pregnant. I just purchased a Jew electric toothbrush and think I’ll really step up my visits to the dentist for cleanings etc in the hopes that my mouth is as healthy as possible with my own dentist.

@Gardenlady543 also got a mouth guard at my last visit. Since starting ttc I’ve been grinding loads. It’s crazy the effect infertility has on your stress levels.

I’m going to do an ERA ALICE and EMMA before doing a transfer and I’ve already done immunes testing so hoping that’ll cover my bases.