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Is Modulen bad for your teeth?

S

SLakes

I take Questran / Cholestyramine as a substitute for my ilium that was removed by surgery for my Crohn’s.

Just the other day I found something online that said it can be bad for your teeth and you should try to drink it through a straw and wait until you’ve taken it before cleaning your teeth. I didn’t know this and had never been warned about it

This got me to thinking about the Modulen I take as a liquid diet for crohn’s. It’s quite sweat and must have lots of sugars

So a combination of the two must be especially bad and I’ve taken to cleaning my teeth after every drink

Anyone else aware or have opinions on this?
 
kiny

kiny

Well-known member
Yes, you should drink it through a straw. The sweet taste you taste is from the sucrose (table sugar) and maltodextrin (it's maltodextrin with a high DE index, it's close to glucose). Neither are good for your teeth.

The reason EN has so much sugar and maltodextrin is because both are highly bioavailable and taken up high in the intestinal tract. This high bioavailability is also the reason EN works for crohn's disease patients, it lowers the fecal stream and lowers bacterial load.

That you shouldn't brush your teeth right before or after a meal is true too, because those are the periods your teeth are vulnerable to brushing movements. You should wait at least 30 minutes, but in the meantime, you can just drink water to 'wash away' any sugar left in your mouth.
 
kiny

kiny

Well-known member
Reason why the anti-plastic straw movement is so ridiculous is that some people need those plastic straws. There are several diseases that rely on the use of throwaway plastic straws to manage their disease. There is no good substitute for those straws, you can drink water through a paper or metal straw, but you can't drink liquid feeds through them, they would decompose, or in the case of reusable metal straws, become breeding grounds for bacteria (washing metal straws is not a solution, people will end up ingesting cleaning substances that will end up on the inside of the straw).
 
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