How Stress is Impacting Your Oral Health: 5 Unexpected Ways

Stress is more than just an unpleasant feeling. It can take a serious toll on your body and affect your physical, mental, and oral health. From teeth grinding to gum disease, stress can impact your oral health in more than one way. If you’re living in Everett, it’s essential to understand how stress might be affecting your teeth and gums. Let’s explore surprising ways in which stress is impacting your oral health.

Neglected Dental Care

• High levels of stress can cause us to overlook essential daily routines, including our oral hygiene. These practices are essential for preventing inflammation, infection, decay, and gum disease. Unfortunately, when stress takes over, we become preoccupied with our worries, indulge in sugary comfort foods, and sometimes forget to brush or floss.

This combination of poor diet and neglected oral hygiene can lead to serious oral health problems. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain your dental care routine, even during stressful times. Make sure to brush twice a day, floss daily, and drink plenty of water to keep your teeth and gums healthy. Schedule regular dental cleanings with an Dentist to prevent dental issues from getting worse.

Tense Jaw Muscles

• When we’re stressed, muscle tension is often triggered as a natural defense mechanism to protect the body from injury. However, chronic stress can cause persistent tightness in your jaw muscles, which may lead to pain or a condition known as TMJ disorder.  

TMJ disorder affects the jaw joint and can result in symptoms such as:

• Jaw pain
• Clicking or popping sounds
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Difficulty chewing or opening your mouth

In severe cases, your jaw might even lock up. If left untreated, TMJ disorder can worsen over time, leading to reduced function of the jaw muscles and joints.

Teeth Grinding or Bruxism

• Stress-induced muscle tension in your jaw can also lead to teeth grinding or bruxism. While bruxism can happen during the day, it often occurs at night, leaving many unaware they are grinding or clenching their teeth while asleep. Unfortunately, this can cause serious damage over time.

Constant grinding puts stress on your teeth, wearing down enamel, increasing tooth sensitivity, and even causing chips, cracks, or loosening of teeth. You might also feel soreness in your jaw, neck, or face and experience frequent headaches or earaches. Left untreated, bruxism can contribute to the development of TMJ disorder.

Nighttime bruxism is harder to detect, but here are telltale signs:

• Waking up with headaches
• Earaches
• Jaw soreness
• Experiencing disrupted sleep.

Addressing bruxism early is crucial to prevent long-term damage to your teeth and overall oral health.

Gum Inflammation 

• Stress can also contribute to gum infections and inflammation, especially when the immune system is weakened. When the immune defenses are down, it’s harder for the body to fight off infections, increasing the likelihood of developing gum disease.

During stressful periods, the body produces a hormone called cortisol, which can trigger protein production in the gums, leading to inflammation. If left unchecked, this chronic inflammation can progress to gingivitis or even periodontitis, which are more advanced stages of gum disease.

Tooth Decay and Cavities

• Stress-related habits like poor diet, unhealthy choices, and neglecting oral care can lead to tooth decay, commonly known as cavities. Frequent consumption of sugary or acidic foods and drinks weakens your teeth. Bacteria in your mouth convert sugar into acid, which erodes tooth enamel.

Similarly, acidic beverages like alcohol break down enamel, making your teeth more susceptible to cavities and decay. A weakened immune system also struggles to fight off harmful oral bacteria, allowing bacteria to thrive and increasing the likelihood of tooth decay.

Contact Icon Dental Center today for professional dental cleanings. We are one of the best dental professionals operating in Everett and Seattle. Call us today at 206-225-2882, and let us help you smile with greater confidence.