Chewing aspirin or even letting the tablets dissolve in the mouth can seriously damage teeth, a report of two such cases suggests.
Dentists have long discouraged patients from chewing aspirin since it can irritate the gums and cause mouth ulcers—what some dentists call “aspirin burn.” But chewing aspirin had never been directly implicated in tooth damage.
Researchers at the University of Maryland Dental School in Baltimore have now documented such damage in two patients who chewed aspirin regularly to relieve headache pain.
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