Teenager, mostly girls but some boys as well, are really worried about the way their body looks. They will spend hours not only obsessing about what they should and shouldn’t wear, but also worrying over the general condition of their body. It is not uncommon for this obsession over appearance to lead to some pretty serious eating disorders.
Parent’s always want to think that they will be able to tell if their child has an eating disorder, but it isn’t always easy to detect. Some girls will seem to eat plenty, and they will appear to be a good weight and have clear, youthful looking skin and might still be struggling with a potentially life threatening eating disorder. As a parent the sooner you are able to determine that your teenager is in the middle of an eating disorder, the greater your chances are of being able to turn it around before your child’s health is at risk.
One of the ways that you can determine if your child is dealing with an eating disorder as opposed to being just naturally lean is by taking them to the dentists Harford County.
dentists Harford County are often the first people to be alerted to the fact that a teenager is struggling with an eating disorder. Your child can pretend to eat, they can hide their body in baggy clothes, and they can cover their pale skin with makeup, but they cannot fake the condition of their teeth.
The easiest eating disorder for dentists Harford County to detect is bulimia. This is an eating disorder where the teen vomits after they eat. Some nutrients are able to get through their system, but not many. The constant exposure to stomach bile is really hard on the teen’s teeth and the enamel will start to wear away, especially on the back side of their teeth. The dentists Harford County will pick up on this wearing and know that he teen has a problem.
Even though the oral signs of anorexia aren’t quite as obvious as the indicators of bulimia, they are still there. One of the things that the dentists Harford County can pick up on is that the teen’s jaw is not as strong as it should be. The constant starvation that the teen is subjecting themselves to not only weakens their muscles, but it can also trigger osteoporosis which can result in fragile teeth. Because the anorexic teen is not eating enough, their body craves calcium and it will leach the calcium form the teen’s teeth increasing the number of cavities and broken teeth that they are going to have.
If the eating disorder has gone on for a long time, the dentists Harford County will start to notice that the actual shape of the teen’s jaw and throat which is caused by swollen salivary glands.
