Vitamin B-12 Deficiency & Tooth Or Gum Pain

Vitamin B-12, also known as cobalamin, is an essential micronutrient that aids your digestive and central nervous systems and helps build red blood cells. According to the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements, the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin B-12 for adults is 2.4 mcg per day. The average Western diet includes many sources of vitamin B-12, which is usually found in animal-based foods, such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products. It does not occur naturally in plant-based foods, but it is found in fortified cereals. Lack of B vitamins can lead to a number of oral health problems, including tooth and gum pain.

B Vitamins and Oral Health

The B complex of vitamins includes B-12 along with eight other B vitamins. As a group, they help you break down carbohydrates, fats and proteins for conversion into energy and improve muscle tone in your stomach and intestines. Lack of these vitamins can lead to recurrent aphthous stomatitis; atrophic glossitis; chronic oral mucosal candidiasis, or mouth thrush; angular cheilitis; and swelling of the tongue.

Vitamin B-12 Deficiency and Mouth Pain

While vitamin B-12 deficiency is not directly associated with tooth pain, it can contribute to other painful mouth conditions, including canker sores, which are sometimes found on the gums, and conditions involving the tongue, such as glossitis and recurrent aphthous stomatitis, or RAS, a common ulcerative sore found in the mouth.

If you have glossitis, your tongue may be tender and pale, if you have pernicious anemia --- a condition associated with vitamin B-12 deficiency --- or redder than normal if you are deficient in some other B vitamins. It may also be swollen and the surface may appear smooth.

RAS affects more than 20 percent of the world's population, according to the American Dental Association. In a study reported in the 2009 "Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine," Dr. Ilia Volkov and others found that using vitamin B-12 to treat RAS led to fewer and shorter outbreaks of the ulcers, as well as reduced pain.

Causes of Vitamin B-12 Deficiency

B-12 is not like other B vitamins, as it can be stored in the liver for years. It is, however, possible to have a deficiency, so you need to eat foods with vitamin B-12 as part of your daily diet. Because vitamin B-12 is not found in plants, vegetarians and vegans need to seek out other sources. Others at risk include older adults and people who have malabsorption syndromes, including atrophic gastritis and pernicious anemia, in which the stomach lining becomes inflamed and nutrients can't be effectively absorbed. Bowel disorders such as Crohn's disease may limit your ability to absorb B-12 and other nutrients. AIDS, alcoholism, some types of stomach or intestinal surgeries, and pancreatic insufficiency may also be causes of vitamin B-12 deficiency. Some prescription drugs may affect vitamin B-12 absorption, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements.

Treatment for Vitamin B-12 Deficiency

You'll need to take a blood test to determine if you are deficient in vitamin B-12. If you are, talk to your doctor about taking supplements, which come in oral or injectable forms. Vitamin B-12 injections bypass the malabsorption issues of many people with the deficiency. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, though, researchers have found that some people who were given very high doses of oral vitamin B-12 were able to absorb adequate amounts of the supplement, which could potentially replace the injection. This can be done safely, because vitamin B-12 has not been found to be toxic, even in these large doses.