What Does Khat Do to Your Teeth

Teeth are one of the first places where khat leaves a visible mark, and they are also one of the places where the damage is hardest to undo. Khat is chewed, not swallowed whole, which means the mouth does the work. The leaves sit in the cheek for hours, the juice washes over the teeth and gums again and again, and the jaw moves in a steady, repeated rhythm for the whole session. That is a lot of work for a mouth to do every day, and over months and years, the wear shows: in the enamel, in the gums, in the colour of the teeth, and in the jaw itself.

The damage is easy to miss at first, because it does not arrive as sudden pain. It arrives slowly, as teeth that look a little duller, gums that bleed a little more easily, a mouth that feels dry, and a jaw that aches in the morning. People often put these changes down to age, or to poor brushing, or to bad luck, without connecting them to the hours of chewing. But dentists who work in communities where khat is common describe a clear pattern, and health guidance on stimulant use points to the same risks: wear, gum disease, decay, and jaw problems, all made worse by dry mouth and by the long, repeated chewing.

This article explains, in plain words, what khat does to your teeth and mouth: how the chewing itself wears teeth down, what happens to the gums, why a dry mouth invites decay, how staining changes a smile, and why the jaw starts to hurt. It is general information only, not individual dental advice. If you are worried about your teeth or your mouth, a qualified dentist is the right person to talk to.

What Khat Is and How It Is Chewed

Khat comes from the leaves of a shrub called Catha edulis, which grows in parts of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The fresh leaves are chewed for their stimulating effect, which comes mainly from a chemical called cathinone. The leaves are usually chewed in a bundle, tucked into one side of the cheek, and worked slowly for several hours. The juice is swallowed bit by bit, and the chewed wad stays in the mouth for the whole session. A session commonly lasts three or four hours, and regular users may chew most days.

That method matters for the teeth, because it is so different from eating ordinary food. When you eat a meal, you chew for a few minutes, swallow, and your mouth rests. When you chew khat, the same side of the mouth works for hours without a proper rest, and the leaves, the juice, and the wad itself press against the same teeth and the same patch of gum for the whole time. The teeth on that side do far more work than they were made to do, and the gum underneath the wad is held under pressure and bathed in leaf juice for hours at a time. It is a slow, repeated strain, and it is the starting point for most of the damage described in this article.

Khat leaves also contain tannins, the same kind of compounds that stain teeth in strong tea and coffee, and they are mildly acidic. That matters too, because acid softens the surface of the teeth, and tannins colour it. Add in the dry mouth that stimulants cause, and the mouth loses some of its natural protection at exactly the moment it needs it most. The result is a mouth that is being worked harder, protected less, and exposed to staining compounds for hours every day.

Hours of Chewing Wear Teeth Down

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, but it is not indestructible, and it does not grow back once it is worn away. Every chewing session grinds the teeth together in a steady rhythm, and the fibrous leaves add friction of their own. Over months and years, that repeated grinding wears the chewing surfaces of the teeth flatter, and the edges can become chipped or rough. People may notice that their teeth feel different when they bite, or that hot and cold drinks sting more than they used to, because the worn enamel lets temperature reach the sensitive layer underneath more easily.

The wear is often worse on one side, because most people chew on the same side of the mouth each time. That uneven wear can change the way the teeth meet when the mouth closes, which puts extra pressure on the remaining teeth and on the jaw joint. A tooth that has lost its proper shape has to work harder, and the teeth around it have to work harder too, so the wear spreads. Dentists describe this as a slow, uneven process, which is why it is often noticed late. A single session does no visible harm. A thousand sessions do, and by the time the change is obvious in the mirror, a great deal of enamel has already been lost.

Worn teeth also break more easily. A tooth with thin enamel and a flattened shape is more likely to crack or chip when biting something hard, and a cracked tooth can become painful and infected if it is not treated. None of this is inevitable after a short period of use, and the speed of the damage depends on how often and how long a person chews, and on how well they look after their teeth in other ways. But the direction of the effect is clear: the more hours of chewing, the more wear, and the wear cannot be reversed, only managed once it has happened.

The Gums Suffer First

The gums are often the first part of the mouth to show harm from khat, and they are also the part people notice least. During a session, the wad of leaves sits against the gum on one side of the mouth, pressing on it and rubbing it for hours. The gum becomes irritated, swollen, and sore, and it may bleed when brushed. That irritation is not just uncomfortable. Inflamed gums are the first stage of gum disease, and if the irritation is repeated day after day, the inflammation can become chronic, which means it never fully settles between sessions.

Chronic gum inflammation has serious consequences. The gum can start to pull away from the tooth, forming a small pocket where food and bacteria collect. Those pockets are hard to clean, and the bacteria inside them produce acids and toxins that damage the tissues holding the tooth in place. Over time, the bone that supports the tooth can be lost, the tooth can become loose, and in the worst cases, the tooth can fall out. This process is slow and mostly painless in its early stages, which is why it is so dangerous. A person can lose the support for their teeth without feeling much pain at all, until the teeth start to move.

The risk is made worse by the other effects of khat. Dry mouth means less saliva to wash away bacteria. Poor appetite and skipped meals can mean a diet with fewer of the nutrients gums need to stay healthy. And the long sessions leave less time and less energy for brushing and flossing properly. All of these factors point in the same direction, and they explain why gum disease is one of the most commonly reported dental problems among regular khat users. Bleeding gums, sore gums, and gums that look red and puffy are warnings, and they are worth taking seriously.

Dry Mouth and Tooth Decay

Saliva is the mouth’s best defence, and khat takes it away. Stimulants reduce the flow of saliva, and a chewing session that lasts for hours can leave the mouth feeling dry and sticky for a long time afterwards. Saliva does several important jobs at once. It washes food and bacteria off the teeth, it neutralises the acids that bacteria produce, and it carries minerals that help repair the tiny daily damage to enamel. When saliva is scarce, all three of those jobs are done badly, and the teeth are left exposed.

Tooth decay starts when bacteria in the mouth feed on sugars and produce acid, and that acid dissolves the minerals in enamel. Normally, saliva washes the acid away and helps the enamel recover. With a dry mouth, the acid stays on the teeth longer, and the enamel has less chance to recover, so small cavities form more easily and grow faster. People who chew khat regularly often develop decay in places that are hard to see and hard to clean, such as between the teeth and along the gum line, and the decay can be advanced before it causes pain. By the time a tooth aches, the damage is often deep.

The problem is made worse by what people drink and eat during a session. Sweet tea, sugary drinks, and sweet snacks are common alongside khat, and they give the bacteria in the mouth exactly the sugar they need to make more acid. A dry mouth plus frequent sugar is one of the worst combinations for teeth, and it is a combination that many chewing sessions contain. The decay that follows is not a mystery and it is not bad luck. It is the predictable result of a mouth that is dry, sugary, and underused by its own defences for hours every day.

Staining and Changes to the Smile

Khat stains teeth, and the staining is one of the most visible signs of regular use. The leaves contain tannins, which are the same compounds that stain teeth in strong tea, coffee, and red wine, and hours of contact every day give those compounds plenty of time to work. The stains usually start as a yellow or brown tint, often stronger on the side where the leaves are held, and over time the colour can deepen and spread across the front teeth. Brushing alone often does not remove it, because the stain sits in the surface of the enamel and in the tiny cracks that wear has created.

A stained smile affects more than appearance. People become aware of how their teeth look when they talk, laugh, or smile for a photograph, and they may start to cover their mouth, smile less, or avoid situations where their teeth will be noticed. That self-consciousness can affect confidence at work, in social life, and in relationships, and it can make a person feel older than they are. The change is gradual, which makes it harder to accept, because the person in the mirror changes so slowly that each day’s version looks almost the same as the last, until one day the difference is impossible to ignore.

Staining is also a warning sign. Teeth that are heavily stained are often teeth that are also worn, dry, and inflamed at the gum line, because the same sessions cause all of those problems at once. Professional cleaning can remove surface stain, but it cannot restore worn enamel or heal damaged gums, and the stain returns quickly if chewing continues. That is the honest truth about staining: it can be cleaned, but it cannot be cleaned away for good while the cause is still there.

Jaw Pain, Grinding and Headaches

The jaw works harder during a khat session than at almost any other time, and it pays for that work. Chewing for three or four hours without a break tires the chewing muscles, and the jaw can feel stiff, sore, and tired when the session ends. For some people, the ache fades overnight. For regular users, it can become a daily companion, with soreness in the morning, difficulty opening the mouth fully, and a clicking or aching feeling in the joint in front of the ear. That joint, the jaw joint, is a delicate hinge, and hours of repeated movement can irritate it in the same way that overusing any joint causes pain.

Grinding makes the problem worse. Stimulants can cause people to clench or grind their teeth, often without realising it, and the grinding can continue during sleep, when the person has no control over it at all. Grinding wears the teeth down far faster than ordinary chewing, and it puts heavy pressure on the jaw muscles and the jaw joint. People who grind often wake with a sore jaw, a headache, or teeth that feel tender to bite on, and they may not connect those symptoms to khat at all. The link is worth knowing, because grinding that goes on night after night can crack teeth, loosen fillings, and leave the jaw permanently sore.

Headaches are a common complaint too, and they often come from the same source: tired jaw muscles, a strained jaw joint, and the tension that builds up during a long session. The headache may start in the temples or behind the eyes, and it can last into the next day, especially after a night of poor sleep. Headaches from jaw strain are not the same as headaches from other causes, but they are easy to confuse, and they are often treated with painkillers when the real cause is the hours of chewing. The pain is real, and it is a signal that the jaw is being asked to do more than it can comfortably manage.

Why the Damage Builds Up Slowly

One of the hardest things about khat and teeth is that the damage builds up so slowly that it is easy to ignore. Enamel does not disappear in a week. Gums do not recede in a month. A tooth does not fall out after one session. Each change is small, and the mouth adapts to it, so the person carries on chewing and the damage carries on building. That slow pace is the reason so many people only seek help when the problem is already serious: when a tooth is loose, when eating hurts, or when the smile has changed beyond what they can accept.

The slowness also makes it easy to blame something else. A person with sore gums may blame their toothbrush. A person with stained teeth may blame tea or coffee. A person with a sore jaw may blame stress or a bad night’s sleep. All of those things can contribute, and they may genuinely be part of the picture, but they are rarely the whole story when a person is also chewing khat for hours every day. The honest way to look at it is to add up all the factors, and to ask whether the mouth would be in this state without the chewing. In many cases, the answer is no.

There is another reason the damage is slow to notice, which is that the mouth hides its own problems well. Gum disease is mostly painless until it is advanced. Early decay causes no pain at all. Worn enamel looks normal until it is badly worn. The mouth does not send clear alarms the way a broken bone does, and by the time pain arrives, the damage is often deep and expensive to repair. That is why dentists encourage regular check-ups even when nothing hurts, and why a person who chews khat regularly should pay particular attention to bleeding gums, persistent soreness, loose teeth, or a jaw that aches most mornings. Those are the mouth’s quiet alarms, and they deserve attention.

Eating, Speaking and Daily Comfort

Teeth are not just for show. They are tools for eating, for speaking clearly, and for feeling comfortable in daily life, and khat damage affects all three. Worn, sensitive teeth make hot and cold food painful, and loose or missing teeth make chewing proper food difficult. People start to avoid foods that are hard, hot, or cold, and their diet narrows to soft, easy foods, which are often less healthy. Meals become something to get through rather than something to enjoy, and shared meals with family lose some of their pleasure.

Speaking can change too. Teeth help shape the sounds of speech, and when teeth are worn, loose, or missing, words can become harder to pronounce clearly. People may start to speak more quietly, or to avoid long conversations, because they are aware of how their mouth feels and sounds. That is a small change with a large effect on daily life, because conversation is how people work, make friends, and stay close to family. A mouth that hurts or feels wrong makes all of those things harder.

Daily comfort is the sum of these small losses. A mouth that aches in the morning, teeth that sting with cold water, gums that bleed when brushed, a jaw that clicks when eating: none of these is a crisis on its own, but together they make ordinary days less comfortable, and they are a constant reminder of the habit that caused them. That reminder is worth listening to, because it is the body saying, in the only language it has, that the mouth is being asked to do too much for too long.

What a Dentist Sees in a Regular User

Dentists who work in communities where khat is common often say they can recognise a regular user from the mouth alone, even before the person mentions chewing. The pattern is consistent: wear that is heavier on one side, gums that are red and puffy on the same side, staining that is strongest where the leaves were held, and decay in places that are hard to reach. None of those signs proves khat use on its own, because each of them can have other causes, but together they form a picture that dentists learn to recognise, and it is a picture that tells a story of hours of chewing, day after day.

What a dentist also sees is how late people come for help. By the time a regular user sits in the dental chair, the problems are often advanced, because the early stages caused so little pain that there seemed no reason to come. A dentist may find several teeth with decay, gums that bleed at the slightest touch, and a jaw that is sore to examine, all in a mouth whose owner thought their teeth were mostly fine. That gap between how the mouth looks to its owner and how it looks to a dentist is one of the reasons regular check-ups matter so much. A dentist sees the damage while it is still small enough to treat cheaply and easily, and that early view is worth more than any amount of treatment later.

It is also worth saying that dentists are not there to judge. A person who chews khat and goes to the dentist may worry about being lectured, and that worry keeps many people away. But a good dentist’s job is to look after the mouth in front of them, whatever caused the damage, and to talk honestly about what can be done. Telling the dentist about the chewing is not a confession. It is information that helps the dentist give the right care, and it is one of the most useful things a patient can do.

What Helps the Mouth Recover

Stopping khat is the single most important step for the mouth, because it removes the cause of the wear, the irritation, and the dryness all at once. Without the hours of chewing, the gums have a chance to settle, saliva flow returns towards normal, and the teeth stop being ground down every day. The damage that has already happened cannot be undone: worn enamel does not grow back, and bone lost to gum disease does not return on its own. But stopping prevents further damage, and that matters enormously, because the difference between a mouth that keeps getting worse and one that stays stable is the difference between keeping teeth and losing them.

Good daily care helps too, and it is worth doing properly. Brushing twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, cleaning between the teeth, and rinsing the mouth with plain water after a session all reduce the harm. Drinking water during a session helps with dry mouth, and avoiding sugary drinks and snacks during chewing removes one of the main causes of decay. These steps do not cancel out the damage from chewing, and they should not be presented as a way to chew safely, because there is no way to chew for hours a day without harming the mouth. But they do slow the damage down, and they are worth doing for anyone who is not yet ready to stop.

A dentist can help in ways that home care cannot. Regular check-ups allow early decay and gum disease to be found before they cause pain, and professional cleaning removes the build-up that brushing misses. A dentist can also look at wear, jaw pain, and grinding, and talk through what can be done, from a night guard for grinding to treatment for damaged teeth. Seeing a dentist is not a sign of failure. It is a practical step, and for a person who chews khat, it is one of the most useful steps available. If the mouth is sore, if teeth are loose, or if eating has become painful, that is a reason to see a dentist soon, not to wait and hope it improves on its own.

My Take:

Teeth do not grow back, and that is the sentence I keep coming back to when I think about khat. Almost everything else the body loses can be regained with time: sleep comes back, appetite comes back, energy steadies, and mood lifts. But enamel, once worn away, is gone for good, and the bone that holds a tooth in place, once lost, does not return on its own. That permanence is what makes the dental damage from khat different from the other harms, and it is what makes it worth taking seriously long before the damage becomes obvious. A person who waits until a tooth is loose has waited too long, and the tragedy is that the warnings were there for years, in bleeding gums, in a sore jaw, in teeth that looked a little duller each year, and nobody connected them to the chewing.

I think the mouth is also where khat shows its true character most clearly, because the mouth is where the work is done. The stimulant effect, the alertness, the talkativeness, the feeling of energy: all of that happens in the brain, and it feels like a gift. But the price is paid in the mouth, hour by hour, in the grinding, the pressure of the wad, the dryness, and the acid. It is a strange bargain, in which the brain gets the pleasure and the mouth gets the damage, and the person only notices the bill when the teeth start to change. I find that unfair, and I think it is one of the reasons the dental harm is so often overlooked. People judge a habit by how it makes them feel, and khat makes them feel alert and alive, while the teeth quietly pay for the feeling.

The slowness of the damage is the part that worries me most. If chewing khat caused a tooth to crack the first time, nobody would chew it twice. But it does not. It wears the enamel a fraction at a time, irritates the gum a little more each day, and dries the mouth just enough that decay gets a small head start. None of it hurts much at first, and all of it adds up. I think that is the most dangerous kind of harm, the kind that does not announce itself, because it gives the person no reason to stop until stopping is too late to save what has been lost. A habit that hurt immediately would be easy to refuse. Khat hurts slowly, and slowness is its disguise.

Gum disease is the part I wish people understood better, because it is silent and it is final. A person can have gum disease for years without feeling pain, while the tissues holding their teeth quietly weaken. Then one day a tooth moves, or falls out, and the person is shocked, because nothing hurt. I do not think that is fair either. Pain is the body’s warning system, and when a disease does not cause pain, the warning system has failed. That is why I would urge anyone who chews khat to look at their gums, not just their teeth. Bleeding when you brush, redness, puffiness, a gum line that seems to be moving: these are warnings, and they are worth acting on, even though they do not hurt. A dentist can see what you cannot, and a check-up costs far less than a lost tooth.

The smile is the part I feel most personally, because a smile is how a person meets the world. Teeth that are stained, worn, or missing change the way a person looks, and they change the way a person feels about being looked at. People start to smile less, to cover their mouths, to avoid photographs, and to speak more quietly. That is a real loss, and it is a loss that spreads into work, into friendships, and into family life. I do not think vanity is the right word for it. A smile is not vanity. It is confidence, it is warmth, it is the first thing people see, and losing it because of a habit is a heavy price to pay. If a young person is reading this and thinking about chewing khat, I would ask them to think about their smile in ten years’ time, and to ask whether a few hours of alertness each day is worth trading it away.

Jaw pain is another part I think is underestimated, because it sounds minor until you have lived with it. A jaw that aches every morning, that clicks when you eat, that will not open fully, makes every meal a small ordeal and every conversation a reminder of the pain. Grinding makes it worse, because it happens without the person knowing, often in sleep, and it wears the teeth down far faster than chewing alone. I think people who wake with headaches and a sore jaw should ask themselves honestly whether khat is part of the cause, because the answer is often yes, and because stopping the cause is more useful than taking painkillers for the symptom. Painkillers hide the signal. Stopping removes the cause.

I want to be honest about what stopping can and cannot do for the mouth. Stopping cannot bring back worn enamel, and it cannot restore bone that has been lost. I will not pretend otherwise, because false hope is no help to anyone. But stopping can prevent further damage, and that is not a small thing. A mouth that stops getting worse is a mouth that can be looked after, cleaned, and kept stable, while a mouth that keeps being chewed for hours a day will keep getting worse, no matter how carefully it is brushed. The difference between those two futures is the difference between keeping your teeth and losing them, and that difference is decided by the choice to stop. That is a sobering thought, but it is also a hopeful one, because it means the future of your mouth is still partly in your hands.

Good dental care matters, and I would not want anyone to think it does not. Brushing, cleaning between the teeth, drinking water, and seeing a dentist regularly all help, and they are worth doing. But I want to be clear that they are not a licence to keep chewing. There is no way to chew khat for hours a day and keep a healthy mouth, because the damage comes from the chewing itself: the hours, the pressure, the friction, and the dryness. Brushing can slow the harm, but it cannot cancel it out. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a comforting lie, and comforting lies are the last thing a person with damaged teeth needs.

For parents, I would add this. Children watch what adults do with their mouths, and they learn from it. A parent whose teeth are stained and worn, whose gums bleed, and whose jaw aches, is teaching their children something about khat without saying a word, and the lesson is not a good one. But the opposite is also true. A parent who stops, who looks after their teeth, and who talks honestly about why they stopped, is teaching a far better lesson, and it is one their children will remember. Children do not need a lecture about khat. They need to see that their parents value their health, and that change is possible.

Finally, I would say that your teeth are worth more than the habit. They are the tools you eat with, the frame of your smile, and the part of you that other people see first. They are also the part of you that cannot be replaced once it is gone, at least not cheaply, and not in the same way. If you chew khat and your mouth is already showing the signs, bleeding gums, a sore jaw, stained or sensitive teeth, then this is the moment to act, not next year, when the damage is deeper. See a dentist, talk honestly about your chewing, and make a plan to stop. Your mouth has been carrying the cost of this habit for a long time. It deserves a rest, and it deserves a chance to stay as healthy as it can be for the years ahead.

The cost of dental damage is something I think about a lot, because it is so easy to underestimate. A filling is not expensive. A root canal is more. A lost tooth, replaced properly, can cost a great deal, and the replacement is never as good as the tooth that was there. Multiply that across several teeth, and the total becomes a sum that would have paid for a great deal else in a household. I do not say this to frighten anyone. I say it because the daily cost of khat is visible and small, while the dental bill arrives years later, all at once, and the connection between the two is easy to miss. Adding up the true cost, the leaves plus the dentistry, gives a very different picture from the leaves alone.

I also think about the way dental pain changes a person’s temper and patience. A mouth that hurts makes everything harder: work, conversation, sleep, and family life. People who live with a sore tooth or a sore jaw are shorter-tempered, less able to concentrate, and less able to enjoy a meal or a joke. That is not a character flaw. It is pain, working its way through the day. And when the pain comes from a habit that could have been stopped, it carries an extra weight, because the person knows, underneath, that the pain was avoidable. That knowledge does not help the pain. It only adds to it. The kindest thing to do with that knowledge is to use it as a reason to stop, rather than as a reason to feel guilty.

For young people, the dental harm is the part I would stress most, because young teeth have to last a lifetime. A teenager or a young adult who starts chewing khat regularly is wearing down teeth that need to serve them for another sixty years, and the enamel they lose now will not be there when they are fifty. I do not think young people who chew are foolish. I think they are doing what the people around them do, without anyone telling them plainly that the cost is permanent. That is why I think adults owe young people the truth, told simply and without exaggeration: khat wears your teeth down, it damages your gums, and the damage does not heal. A young person who hears that clearly, before the damage starts, has a real choice. A young person who hears it ten years later has a dental bill.

There is one more honest point I want to make, which is that stopping does not feel like a reward at first, at least not for the mouth. The teeth do not suddenly look better. The gums do not heal in a week. The jaw may ache for a while as it adjusts. That can be discouraging, and it can make a person wonder whether stopping was worth it. I think it helps to know this in advance, so that the slow healing does not feel like failure. The mouth heals slowly because the damage was done slowly, and the benefit of stopping is not that the damage disappears, but that it stops getting worse. A year after stopping, the difference is clear: a mouth that would have been worse is stable, and a smile that would have faded further is still there. That is a real reward, even if it arrives quietly.

Finally, I would ask anyone reading this to look in the mirror, not with fear, but with honesty. Look at the colour of your teeth, the state of your gums, the way your jaw feels in the morning. Ask yourself whether those things were better a year ago, or five years ago, and whether they will be better or worse a year from now if nothing changes. If the answer is worse, then you already know what needs to happen. See a dentist, tell them the truth about your chewing, and make a plan to stop. Your teeth have carried the cost of this habit for a long time, and they have done it without complaint, in silence, day after day. They deserve a rest, and you deserve a mouth that does not hurt when you eat, a smile you are not ashamed of, and teeth that will still be there in the years ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Khat cause teeth grinding?

Yes, it can. Khat is a stimulant, and stimulants can cause people to clench or grind their teeth, often without realising it, including during sleep. Grinding wears teeth down much faster than ordinary chewing, puts heavy pressure on the jaw muscles and the jaw joint, and can crack teeth or loosen fillings. People who grind often wake with a sore jaw, a headache, or teeth that feel tender, and those symptoms are worth discussing with a dentist.

Can Khat cause gum disease?

Yes. During a chewing session, the wad of leaves presses and rubs against the gum on one side of the mouth for hours, which causes irritation and swelling. Repeated daily, that irritation can become chronic gum inflammation, the first stage of gum disease. Over time the gum can pull away from the tooth, pockets form where bacteria collect, and the bone supporting the tooth can be lost, which can eventually make the tooth loose.

How does Khat affect the jaw?

Khat affects the jaw because a session means hours of continuous chewing, which tires the chewing muscles and strains the jaw joint. The jaw can feel stiff, sore, or achy, it may click, and opening the mouth fully can become difficult. Grinding, which stimulants can cause, adds to the strain. The pain often appears in the morning after a long session or a night of grinding, and it can bring headaches with it.

Does Khat make teeth fall out?

Khat does not make teeth fall out directly, but long-term use can lead to tooth loss through gum disease and decay. Chronic gum inflammation can destroy the bone and tissues that hold a tooth in place, and a tooth with no support becomes loose and can fall out. Severe decay can also destroy a tooth from the inside until it cannot be saved. Both processes are slow and mostly painless at first, which is why they are often noticed late.

Why does Khat dry out the mouth?

Khat dries out the mouth because it is a stimulant, and stimulants reduce the flow of saliva. A chewing session lasts for hours, so the mouth stays dry for a long time, and the dryness can continue after the session ends. Less saliva means less washing away of food and bacteria, less neutralising of acids, and less repair of enamel, which is why a dry mouth leaves teeth much more open to decay.

Can Khat damage your teeth?

Yes. Hours of chewing wear down enamel, which does not grow back, and the pressure of the leaf wad irritates the gums. Dry mouth leaves teeth open to decay, tannins in the leaves stain them, and grinding can crack them. The damage builds up slowly over months and years, and it is often advanced before it causes pain, which is why regular dental check-ups matter for anyone who chews khat.

Sources

This article is general information only. It is not individual medical advice. If you are worried about your health, talk to a qualified health professional.