Like other health issues, dental problems can also be rooted in mental stress. If this does not sound familiar to you, you can always consult your dentist for this. Overthinking and tension lead to mental stress. Work pressure, financial problems, personal problems, and such can lead to many oral diseases that most people are not aware of. Many people can’t find the actual reason behind oral issues, but sometimes it is not the cavity or acidic food, but just stress that makes your teeth ill.
It is obvious that stress and oral health are peas of the same pod. Stress also takes various indirect paths to affect your dental health. People who are under stress often tend to neglect their oral hygiene routines. It is considered that when one has so much going on, it would be hard to remember and focus on mere things like brushing and flossing correctly. Stress is also a reason for a poor diet. One tends to increase the intake of sugary and carbohydrate-laden foods that promote tooth decay while in a state of depression. There are many dental diseases that occur due to stress. Here is a small list of your information.
- Gum Disease
If we follow the dentist, many dentists believe that gum problems are directly related to mental stress. Many doctors say that overthinking or mental pressure can harm your gums directly. The more you are tensed more the gums will be affected. Studies have shown that long-term stress also affects the immune systems and thereby increasing one’s susceptibility to infections and that leads to the causing of diseases such as periodontal disease. Along with gums, teeth and jaws can get damaged as well. This leads to acute gum pain and irritation.
- Oral Infections
Stress is known to weaken the immune system greatly. This has a direct effect on your oral health as well. The weaker your immune system, the more prone you are to infections. Thus, when you are stressed, oral infections are at large and if you do not take care of those infections, they can turn worse and result in bigger oral diseases.
- Canker Sores
Canker sores are mouth injuries. This appears due to biting the tongue or inner parts of the cheeks. Biting tongue or cheeks are clear indications of mental stress. A dentist says when we go through severe tension, we often bite our lips or tongue while eating or chewing. This leads to generating a wound or injury inside the mouth. This is technically called the canker sore. If you are suffering from such oral problems, along with medication, you need mental rest as well.
- Teeth Grinding
Teeth grinding is a common problem among adults and children. Many people have the habit of tooth clenching. If you are suffering from any mental pressure, then this makes it even worse. Most of the time people do not even realize it while they are clenching their teeth. This can happen at night during sleep or can occur in the daytime when you are busy with regular work. Mental pressure triggers it more and this can lead to pain in the teeth and gums. There are night guards for your tooth that you can wear if your dentist prescribes to get rid of this habit while sleeping. This condition is medically known as Bruxism.
- Dry Mouth
The condition when the mouth doesn’t produce enough saliva and chronic dryness is experienced, is known as a dry mouth. Dry mouth can occur for various reasons. Many people who have gastric acid problems can also have dry mouths. But according to doctors, the most prominent cause of this is due to stress. Many times, when people are under stress get this disease. It is said by the physicians that over-stress restricts the production of saliva. This leads to dry mouth.
- TMD and TMJ
TMD stands for a disease namely Temporomandibular Disorder. This is a medical term for jaw clenching. Like teeth clenching many of us clench jaw as well. Like teeth grinding most of the time, people don’t realize that they are clenching their jaws in mental pressure. A lot of people have this issue in general. TMD is mostly seen when people are in a deep sleep. That is why people with such issues can’t describe the problem to their dentist.
TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint and is a condition in which one experiences sore jaw muscles and popping and clicking of the jaw joint. There is also severe pain in the joint during its movement or trouble in moving the jaw up and down.
Mental stress or tension is one such problem that affects your entire body. People have this myth that over-thinking only leads to high blood pressure or high sugar level. But this is not restricted to these two diseases. Oral problems, headaches, dark circles, dizziness and many more diseases can occur due to mental pressure. Teeth or oral illness is one of the many health problems that appear from over-thinking. It is necessary for the sufferer to consult a dentist as soon as they have any issues with teeth or mouth. You cannot always blame chocolates or sweets for your oral illness.
