Louise Cooper, a 26-year-old mom who lives in Reading, UK, told The Daily Mail she had to have her teeth removed because she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) during her first pregnancy.
After becoming pregnant with her first child in 2017, she found herself bedridden because of the severity of her condition. She was officially diagnosed with HG about three months into her pregnancy.
According to a study shared by the National Institute of Health, HG affects 0.3%-3% of pregnant women.
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Most people who get pregnant suffer from some type of "morning" sickness, but HG often goes beyond the six to eight weeks morning sickness typically lasts. An article on the subject published by Harvard Medical School states that HG occurs in three out of every 100 pregnancies. Unfortunately, Cooper is one of those statistics.
She explained that the excessive vomiting caused her teeth to start rotting. As a result, some of them began falling out.
"I lost my first tooth around 16 weeks and it was just out of nowhere," she explained. "I was told that my teeth would need to be removed as they were so damaged."
She gave birth to her son in November 2017, and six months later, she had all of her teeth removed.
There is no concrete evidence as to why some people suffer from HG and others don't. The Harvard article states that it could be that those who suffer from it have higher levels of certain hormones during pregnancy, like estrogen or the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is also known as the pregnancy hormone.
When you vomit, stomach acid travels back up, and that acid can do a lot of damage to your teeth, especially after frequent vomiting. Cooper explained that the repeated vomiting and the acid caused the damage to her teeth.
Since giving birth in 2017, Cooper has had two more children and has suffered from HG during each pregnancy. If you've had HG once, it is more likely that you will continue to have it with subsequent pregnancies.
The mental and emotional effects of HG are just as bad as the physical. Cooper told The Daily Mail that the vomiting made it hard for her to eat, even after she was no longer pregnant.
"It is hard to go back into a routine of understanding that food won't make me vomit anymore," she said.
Even though she lost her teeth some years ago, she's only accepted her new reality within the last year.
"I have accepted the fact I have no teeth. I have dentures now, but they are not the most comfortable things to wear as they are cosmetic," she shared.
"I can now leave the house without having teeth in. Life is more relaxing and enjoyable for me. Everything has gone back to normal," she added.
