At 5 feet 2 inches tall, she once weighed 72 pounds because of her meth use.

She says she didn't eat very much, so she didn't think she needed to brush her teeth.

She didn't just wake up one day with the monstrous situation that exists in her mouth now. It sneaked up on her, she says. Plus, she was high a lot of the time and didn't notice.

Certainly, now in jail and sober, she notices.

"It's hard to face people in public," Tippetts said. "People look at you different. They really do."

Potential employers, for example.

Tippetts worked as a live-in nanny in Clearfield for a year before she came to jail.

Even then, she lived like a hermit for that year — she didn't want to leave the house because of her rotten teeth. She says she had groceries delivered, had someone bring her cigarettes and only took the children out to play in the back yard. Eventually, she lost her job because of her meth abuse. She had a falling out with the father, who found her asleep on the couch while watching cartoons with the children. The young woman was coming down from a meth run, and her employer called the cops.

Tippetts had her drugs stashed on a high shelf in her bedroom closet. Now she's in jail.

"This is the kind of case that really tugs at me as a health professional," the jailhouse dentist, Anderson, said. "You just look at that and know there's nothing you can do."

She'll need dentures for sure, he says.

Anderson figures it would cost $25,000 to fix her mouth but says it's not worth it unless she gets off meth.

"We can change the look. The question is, can we change the attitude and the action?"

Nurse to a child at Weber-Morgan Children's Justice Center: "Do you have a toothbrush?"

Child: "Grandma reminds me to brush when I'm at her house."

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The dramatic aesthetic consequences of meth use are the least of numerous issues, according to Jeanlee Carver, a nurse at the Weber-Morgan Children's Justice Center.

"Not only do these addicts neglect their own health and their own personal hygiene, but they neglect their children," said Carver, a leader in health issues that impact children who live in families where crime and substance abuse are present.

"There is a tremendous trickle-down effect," Carver said.

Babies and toddlers are put to bed with bottles in their mouths. They aren't taught to brush, and their teeth are rotting, too.

Last week, staff at the Children's Justice Center saw two young sisters, ages 3 and 5. Their mom was a meth addict. The children had to be given a general anesthetic for the dentist to do their whole mouths.