Teeth grinding
Stress can make you clench and grind your teeth anytime of the day, without you even realizing it. Your dentist will be able to see signs of clenching and teeth grinding during your examination. If you already clench or grind your teeth when you're not stressed, this can make the habit worse.
Bruxism (tooth grinding): stress commonly triggers the grinding, clenching or gnashing of teeth during the night. It can lead to jaw disorders, headaches, chipped or damaged teeth and other dental problems. Dry mouth: anxiety and stress often result in a dry mouth, which has a negative impact on oral health.
Causes of Stress
Dentists face daily demands and a work situation that augments stress. For example, professional isolation, perfectionism, economic pressure, and patient fears are all key sources of stress.
Stress, anxiety, and depression can all affect oral health and lead to the onset of gum disease and tooth decay. It's important that people suffering from mental health issues remember to take proper care of their teeth each day, to keep their mouth in good condition.
Signs and symptoms of dental anxiety
racing heartbeat (tachycardia) or palpitations. low blood pressure and possible fainting (syncope) visible distress, crying or signs of panic. withdrawal, or using humour or aggression to mask anxiety.
Anxiety tongue often refers to the physical effects that anxiety may have on your tongue and mouth. These effects may include tingling, twitching, numbness, burning, or pain in your tongue or mouth. Treating anxiety may relieve your tongue symptoms.
Because of the way chronic stress impairs your immune system, it can lead to chronically inflamed gums, which leads to gum disease. The damage to your gums that chronic stress causes can loosen up the foundations holding your teeth in place, damage the supporting bone, and result in tooth loss.
Stress can cause you to clench your jaw and grind your teeth. This can lead to tooth pain or cause TMJ. If your dentist finds that you have TMJ Syndrome you might need a dental splint to reposition the lower jaw. Otherwise, try some warm compresses, eating soft foods and reducing stress.
Stress increases your risk of gingivitis and gum disease.
And when you're stressed, you release a hormone called cortisol, which can deplete your immune system and allow bacteria to thrive. These bacteria then wreak havoc on your gums, causing them to become inflamed.
Your body is more prone to acid reflux during periods of intense stress and anxiety, which can negatively impact your salivary glands and lead to less saliva production. Furthermore, it can also result in a sticky feeling in your mouth and bad taste, which are common dry mouth symptoms.
Your mouth can tell you a lot about the health of your body. The mouth shows signs of tooth decay, gum disease and other oral health problems. It can also show signs of other disease, if you're missing certain foods from your diet and unhealthy habits such as using tobacco and tobacco-like products, and alcohol.
A traumatic experience from our past is the most common cause of dental anxiety. Whether the bad experience happened to a family member or to us personally, it only takes one to trigger a lifetime of dental phobia.
Dental anxiety is often caused by a fear of the unknown. Patients may notice something on a tooth or on the gums that they are not familiar with, which can cause feelings of anxiety.
What is dentophobia? People with dentophobia, also called odontophobia, have a fear of dentists. Someone with dentophobia may have extreme anxiety at the thought of going to the dentist or while in the dentist's office.
Mindfulness may be able to help you cope with oral anxiety and avoid issues like dry mouth and bruxism. Mindful breathing can help center you in moments of stress. Body scanning and mindful movement can help develop your mind-body connection. Mindful eating can teach you to be present in the moment.
Nervous tension, anger and frustration can cause people to clench and grind their teeth without even realizing it. Therefore, it is important for you to keep an eye out for the following signs: tips of the teeth appearing flat, tooth enamel that is rubbed off causing extreme sensitivity, and tongue indentations.
Dental fear is defined as a negative reaction to specific threatening stimuli associated with dental treatment, whereas dental anxiety is an excessive or impairing negative emotional state experienced by dental patients [1,2].
There are many conditions we can identify during a visual examination of your oral cavity, even if you don't know you suffer from them. This includes mental health problems such as depression. Recent studies suggest that depression conclude depression is closely related to poor oral health.
In the oral cavity, inflammation can appear in various forms. The mouth tissues may feel sore, swollen and hot. These areas may be painful and cause difficulty opening and closing your mouth, talking or eating. In addition, a person may experience other symptoms such as a fever, burning mouth or difficulty sleeping.