meth mouth (1998)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Jack Shafer has a piece in Slate on "The Meth-Mouth Myth". He writes:

-----
http://slate.msn.com/id/2124160/
Although users have been snorting, smoking, injecting, and swallowing
methamphetamine in great quantities for more than 40 years, the phrase
_meth mouth_ is brand new. It makes its first Nexis appearance in
Investor's Business Daily as an unsourced one-liner in a Jan. 31, 2003,
digest of news: "Methamphetamine's drying effect on saliva glands leads to
tooth decay and gum disease, dentists say, a trend known as 'meth mouth.'"
-----

Factiva has the original news story that Investor's Business Daily was
digesting:

-----
Reuters Health E-Line, 30 Jan 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As the number of regular users of the illegal
drug methamphetamine has increased, so has a peculiar set of dental
problems linked to the drug-aptly named "meth mouth," according to US
dentists.
The exact rate of meth mouth is unknown, but dentists who practice in
areas where people have regular access to methamphetamine-also known as
"crystal meth" and "crank," among other terms-are beginning to see a
pattern. [etc.]
-----

Earlier examples from the Usenet archive:

-----
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.showbiz.gossip/msg/5c2821fefcbbe300
alt.showbiz.gossip, "JESSE; MTV VJ", 8 Oct 1998
>What's the deal with Jesse the relatively new MTV VJ?  What kind of
>speech impediment does he have?  I can barely understand him.
Crystal meth mouth?
-----
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.fitness.weights/msg/d0cc91647a5f1b0a
misc.fitness.weights, "Ampetamine Use Up Among Women", 10 Jun 2002
I can spot a heavy meth-mouth in an instant.
Even years after they're 'clean'.
-----


--Ben Zimmer