Stress is a very common reason behind many health problems, yet you might be surprised by the effect it could cause on your oral health as well.
Nowadays with the global pandemic (COVID-19), almost every single person of us is affected in one way or another, adding a huge stress factor to everyone above the daily life challenges most people are going through.
In addition to the known medical problems:
In addition to the known medical problems related to highly stressful daily life, stress can present to you in the forms of repeated painful oral ulcerations
(cold sores, chancres …etc.), grinding of teeth leading to losing tooth structure or sudden chipping and fractures in your teeth, gum problems, and excessively dry mouth.
You don’t necessarily have all of the above symptoms collectively, but professional dental help could certainly help cope with any of the mentioned presentations and prevent their recurrence.
Starting with the most common occurrence:
Starting with the most common occurrence which is the oral ulcerations, which could either pass unnoticed or could present as multiple painful ulcerations, leading to difficulties in food consumption; usually, we recommend visiting your dentist to help to identify the type of the ulcer, managing it with topical medications or even radiating it with dental laser in the same visit.
Sudden dental chippings:
Sudden dental chippings, fractures, loss of teeth surface, or increased dental hypersensitivity could all be presented as a result of continuous/ or night grinding as a result of increased exposure to stress; dental consultation helps to identify the main causative and choosing the appropriate approach for each situation, which usually ranges from a simple individually customized nightguard, B0t0x injections or certain surgical procedures in complicated certain cases. Choosing the correct approach can solely be done by your treating dentist depending on what the clinical examination proves as well as the progress and stage of the condition and could be a group of multiple approaches introduced gradually into the condition.
Coping with stress:
Coping with stress is the main factor to help manage any of the above cases, along with preventive methods for each scenario, usually done during your dental routine visits, to allow evaluation of the progress of the condition.
and last but not least, the best advice is to always try to find ways to help DE-stress and cope with this tough period of time, as well as maintain a healthy diet plan to help boost your immune system and general health overall.
General Dental Practitioner
BDS, MFDS
