One of the most annoying myths about celiac disease is that celiacs have gastrointestinal complaints. The truth is that most celiacs do not have these problems. We were lucky. We presented classically and my child was diagnosed within a year. More often, however, celiacs have weird problems like mood swings, short stature, rashes, anemia, depression and surprisingly enough cavities, white spots on the teeth and canker sores.
Now, like everything else with this disorder the manifestation can be all over the map. I, for example, have one cavity. One. And I am OLD. That said, I know lots of people who feed their kids well, have kids who brush their teeth and use flouride toothpaste yet, bizarrely, the children have five or six cavities.
Apparently those children need to be checked for celiac disease.
Interestingly enough there is also an issue with what they call enamel defects in the permanent teeth. What happens there is that the permanent teeth have white spots or unusual ridges whereas the baby teeth were or are perfect. Again, those children need to be checked.
As usual, I do NOT want you to trust me. Please check out the following sources below.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19687752
http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2013/04/24/tooth-enamel-defects-sadly-common-in-celiac-disease-study-finds.htm
Although dentists are supposed to check these things and alert patients to the possibility of celiac disease, they may not know about the risk or that the parents need to investigate further. If you have questions about any funny little white spots on your child’s teeth, ask the dentist if they are indeed enamel defects. Then remember that the test to rule out celiac disease is a blood test.
