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Stress is something that just about every person experiences, and it can lead to chronic health problems when stress-relief methods aren’t utilized. Your oral health can show signs of too much stress, manifesting these signs as canker sores, other oral ulcers, bruxism, tension and more. Here is how stress affects your oral health and what you can do to reduce wear and tear on your teeth and gums from that stress!
Stress and Bruxism
One of the most common manifestations of stress when it comes to oral health is bruxism. This is the scientific term used for grinding your teeth. Early on in your sleep cycle, patients will clench or grind their teeth as a release for stress. The teeth can clench really hard together, which stresses out your teeth, jaws, facial joints and muscles. Or, they can grind together, going back and forth, which starts to erode the points of your teeth used for breaking up food. Over time, you may have smooth teeth because of the erosion.
Some patients will also feel like their jaw joint is locking up on them. Others will audibly hear popping sounds or their jaw may seem to click or grate with movement, especially when opening or closing the mouth. Other common symptoms include:
- Difficulty with chewing, especially harder foods
- Mild tenderness to severe pain in the jaw area near your ears
- Pain in the exact area of the temporomandibular joint
- Problems with your jaws locking up, making it difficult to open and close your mouth
For TMJ, we provide patients with a hard, sturdy dental device that can take the pressure of clenching and grinding. It is thicker on top of your teeth to protect them from damage or breaking from the pressure the opposing jaw places on the other teeth. Because pressure is sent into the dental device, it takes that pressure off of your teeth and temporomandibular joint, helping you to be pain-free.
We recommend that you find great methods of stress relief and that you get dental help. Stress-induced oral health issues don’t generally resolve overnight, but you can find relief from headaches, facial pain, broken teeth and more with a dental device the same week you get it. You may not be able to get rid of your stressors 100%. However, you can reduce the oral health issues that stem from it with the right care. If you get headaches, facial pain, have weak teeth, dental injuries or more, CONTACT US
