Trying to conceive, as well as pregnancy itself, are wild experiences. The crazy part is that no two experiences are alike — even when we're talking about one woman. Suffice it to say, there's probably no way to chronicle all of the symptoms and side effects that can potentially be attributed to pregnancy. The human body is and will long be a mystery.
One mom confirmed just that when she finally got pregnant after struggling with infertility for four years. While she gained a daughter, she ended up losing something quite valuable: Her teeth! Yes, you read that right. Marissa Greene, who goes by @greene_33 on TikTok suffered severe tooth decay during her pregnancy and especially postpartum.
Marissa experienced terrible morning sickness.
Marissa explained on TikTok that she found out she had one cavity right before she learned hat she had finally gotten pregnant. The dentist told her they would have to wait to treat it until her second trimester, but by then, the dentist's office had shut down due to COVID.
By the time it re-opened, she was in her third trimester, and again the dentist told her she had to wait. Throughout that time, she had experienced "horrible" morning sickness and would brush her teeth immediately every time she threw up, which is apparently a no-no, that ended up contributing to her tooth decay.
Things got even worse after she gave birth.
Marissa also explained that she's lactose intolerant and was not able to consume enough calcium to keep up with the added demand of growing a baby, further weakening her teeth.
"My OB/GYN did check my levels and said that they were good, but I just feel like maybe if I had taken extra supplements besides the prenatals that I was taking, that it might've helped," she said in a video.
Eventually, the decay became so bad, she couldn't brush her teeth because of the pain.
"When they started deteriorating to the point where they were too sensitive to brush, it just made me cry and scream out in pain, I got very depressed about it, and I stopped dealing with them completely," Marissa admitted. By this point, Marissa was an overwhelmed new mom, just trying to figure out life with a baby … we get it.
She recognizes that the severity of the issue was at least in part, her fault.
Marissa accepts that there are probably some things she could have done differently to prevent her dental issues from getting so bad, and she wants to spread awareness so that perhaps other women can get the help they need.
Even though she's been through quite an ordeal losing her teeth and then needing to spend thousands of dollars to replace them with dentures, she still says it was all worth it to get her baby girl.
"I know it's not for everyone, but I would do it again in a heartbeat for my baby girl. She means the absolute world to me," Marissa said.
Lots of women have had similar experiences.
Although Marissa only had a few hundred followers on TikTok before posting the first video about her teeth, that video has now been viewed nearly 6 million times and has over half a million likes.
Tons of women have taken to the comments to share that they had similar experiences and to thank Marissa for spreading awareness despite feeling "vulnerable," in doing so.
"This makes me feel so seen. Didn't have great teeth before pregnancy, but 39+5 and just waiting to have her so I can get 6 teeth pulled and a partial," commented one mom-to-be.
"This happened to my friend, she lost her smile unfortunately, but she has a beautiful baby girl with a gorgeous smile ," someone else commented.
"After 3 pregnancies I found out on my 4th that this was a thing since I had teeth decay!!" another mom confirmed. "So some pregnancy secrets are secrets to even us moms ."
Others were curious and wanted to know more.
Marissa dedicated a whole video to people who wanted to know if her teeth were generally healthy before pregnancy … they were.
Bottom line, in the words of one TikTok user: "Most people have no idea the toll a persons body takes carrying a child. We risk so many health conditions to have our children. "
