Is Your Smile Stressed?

It´s well known that stress can take its toll on your wellbeing. When stressed, you might suffer from tight/tense muscles, mood swings, and poor sleep (or lack thereof).

Stress causes unrest (both mental and physical) and makes it difficult to power down your mind, so you can rest.

If you experience stress over long periods, your body will release hormones that might affect your nervous system. But stress can also negatively affect your smile.

Here, we´ll be explaining how stress can negatively impact both your teeth and your overall oral health. Let´s begin!

5 Ways Stress Affects Your Smile

Teeth grinding (bruxism)

A condition often linked to stress, bruxism doesn´t just cause headaches. It´ll also wear and eventually damage your teeth due to the constant and usually involuntary grinding.

Bruxism´s also a frequent cause of jaw pain. It can also cause serious consequences, such as developing TMJ or even distorting the way you look.

As previously mentioned, most patients aren´t aware they suffer from bruxism. This is because it often occurs at night, thus, disturbing your sleep and increasing/perpetuating stress issues.

Drinking and smoking

Whether it´s a beer, a glass of wine, or coffee, sometimes having a drink helps you take your mind away from stressful situations and allows you to keep going on.

Nevertheless, being overly stressed makes you more prone to excessively consume alcohol or dark, caffeinated beverages. But this just won´t resolve your stress issues. It also stains your teeth.

Likewise, stress-induced smoking has terrible consequences for your overall health. It doesn´t just cause teeth stains and gum disease. Smoking highly increases your risk of developing mouth (and lung) cancer.

Having a poor diet

Stress might also lead to constant physical tiredness and mental exhaustion. When this happens, people often shy away from cooking healthy meals.

Instead, you´ll most likely have takeout food, make yourself a quick fix, or worse, and you might turn to sugary snacks. Whatever the case, these will negatively affect your oral health.

Neglecting self-care habits

Aside from choosing junk food over a healthy meal, stressful times might also lead you to skip your daily self-care routine.

You might have trouble sleeping, start skipping exercise, and showering less. But also, you could be skipping out on your oral healthcare habits due to stress.

Eventually, neglecting your oral self-care habits will have dire consequences for your health. Bacteria will thrive, which leads to multiple issues, like tooth decay, gum disease, and chronic bad breath.

Decreased immune response

Stress also has a detrimental effect on your body´s immune cell production ability. This decrease in immune response makes it unable to protect itself against bacteria.

Of course, this is dire news for your gums. When you´re stressed, bacteria in your mouth have an increased chance of thriving and can lead to periodontal disease.

When left untreated, stress might wreak havoc on a person´s physical and mental conditions. Likewise, stress can also have multiple prejudicial effects on your oral health.

If you´re concerned with your smile´s appearance, there´s no reason for you to suffer in silence. Give us a call and schedule an appointment, so we can help you.

Our team will gladly take upon themselves the task of enhancing/perfecting your smile. This way, you´ll get the desired results and be self-confident. So, what´re you waiting for?

Disclaimer: The content provided on this website is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice tailored to your specific needs and circumstances. Any reliance you place on the information provided in these blogs is, therefore, strictly at your own risk. We shall not be held responsible for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the information provided on this website.
Call Now Button