4 Ways That Stress Can Affect Your Oral Health

There’s no denying that the painful throbbing of a toothache increases your stress levels. You can’t sleep, can’t eat, and — in some cases — can’t even talk! 

But what if you were already living under high pressure before your teeth started hurting? Is the opposite true? Could your chronic, increased stress levels be causing your tooth pain?

In this blog, we’ll dissect the relationship between your mental and oral health and explain why your stress levels could be causing or irritating a painful tooth. (Don’t worry; we’ll also give you potential solutions to this uncomfortable problem!)

The Relationship Between Stress and Oral Health

Stress is defined as any reaction to a demand, whether emotional, psychological, or physical. In short, it’s a part of life for all of us.

This human response can be a good thing. Certain stresses, called “eustresses,” push us to do better, overcome challenges, and work harder. But any kind of stress, even good stress, can lead to unhealthy responses in your body.

When your brain notices external or internal stress, it releases hormones. Nerve and hormonal signals prompt adrenaline and cortisol to spread out of the adrenal glands: the fight-or-flight reaction.

This safety feature of the body speeds up your heartbeat and increases your blood pressure to prepare you for battle. This reaction is usually self-limiting, and your hormones return to normal levels once the “threat” is gone.

Chronic Stress and Your Health

However, many people deal with stress on an ongoing basis. If you always feel like you’re threatened (either consciously or subconsciously), your fight-or-flight alertness is always activated.

While the stress response heightens your awareness and boosts your energy, this spike, when chronic, has long-term dangers associated with it, such as:

• Headaches
• Muscle tension and discomfort
• Trouble sleeping
• Stomach issues
• Anxiety or depression
• Increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, or heart attack
• Difficulty concentrating or focusing

While these stress side effects are widely known, the reaction of your adrenal response on your mouth is less common.

However, if you have teeth, gums, or other oral health issues, they could be stress-related.

Stress and Your Mouth, Gums, and Teeth

Have you been noticing that your teeth or gums are extra sensitive?

Maybe you’re experiencing unexplained ulcers in your mouth, or your jaw is clicking and popping with movement.

All of these issues are signs that something isn’t quite right in your oral health department, and stress could be the cause of your concerns.

Let’s look deeper into the four connections between your mouth and your brain’s fight-or-flight response to stress.

1. Dental Infections

When you’re dealing with too much pressure for long periods, the result can be an increase in dental infections like ulcers and cavities.

How does your mental health show up physically in your teeth and inside and outside your mouth? The answer is a physiological connection between your mind and salivary glands.

Anxiety and stress can increase the bacteria in your mouth by reducing saliva production. Saliva is essential to the digestive system, rinsing food particles, bacteria, and debris off your teeth.

Without enough saliva, these microorganisms multiply and thrive in your mouth's moist, dark environment. Over time, the bacteria get under your gums and into your teeth, leading to gum disease and tooth decay.

In addition to the salivary changes, stress also increases inflammation throughout the body. If left untreated, inflamed gums become gingivitis and can turn into periodontitis, an irreversible form of gum disease that causes bone deterioration and tooth loss.

What about those lip and mouth ulcers? Pay attention to your unconscious stress habits. When you’re feeling pressured, you may bite your cheek or lip, creating small white lesions called ulcers. The more you bite in the same spot, the larger and more painful these lesions become.

Preventing Dental Infections From Stress

Avoiding dental infections starts with at-home care. Don’t let your stress levels keep you from brushing and flossing daily and following your oral hygiene routine!

Next, stay hydrated. Even if stress has you turning to junk food or fast food to get through the day, extra water can help reduce the damage of your poor eating habits on your teeth and reduce the need for fillings and other dental treatments later.

Finally, if you notice a mouth ulcer or canker sore, use Orajel or another numbing agent. Saltwater rinses can reduce inflammation, which helps the ulcer heal faster and has a double effect of fighting bacteria.

2. Teeth Grinding

Got chronic stress? Then there’s a good chance you also have teeth grinding and jaw clenching.

This condition, called bruxism, is most commonly caused by stress or anxiety, but is also linked to:

• Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
• Medicines such as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
• Smoking and tobacco use
• Excess use of alcohol or caffeine
• Illicit drug use, particularly stimulants

Children are most likely to develop sleep bruxism, and the problem often stops by the time they become adults and have all their permanent teeth.

But it’s also common in adults with risk factors like stress, OSA, and the other above-listed causes.

Bruxism and Your Oral Health

Teeth grinding or jaw clenching might not sound like a big deal until you picture what’s happening in your mouth.

Imagine rubbing a sheet of sandpaper back and forth over a sharp edge, over and over, every night, for hours at a time. Eventually, that sharp edge becomes flat, and the object itself will begin to disappear.

That’s what’s happening to your teeth.

As your upper and lower arches grind away at each other, your teeth surfaces flatten, and the inner layers of each tooth become exposed. Also, picture how tired your arms would be as you rub that sandpaper for hours and hours, and think about how overworked your jaw muscles must be after the ongoing clenching they do each night.

With those results in mind, it’s not surprising that symptoms of this problem include:

• Headaches
• Jaw pain
• Facial pain
• Neck and shoulder discomfort
• TMJ (temporomandibular joint) pain
• Fatigue
• Teeth and gum sensitivity
• Tooth decay and cavities
• Changes to your current dental restorations (like fillings)

Stopping Bruxism-Related Oral Health Issues

Ouch! Maybe bruxism really is a big deal! So, how do you stop it?

The downside to grinding is that the behaviors won’t go away until you deal with the cause. Talk to your doctor to find out how to treat the reason for your bruxing, whether it’s stress-related or stemming from a medical issue. 

But in the meantime, there are a few things you can do to reduce the damage grinding does to your body.

Have Quality Sleep

Start by sticking with a regular, peaceful bedtime routine. Skip the electronics before bed, keep the room dark and clutter-free, and listen to calming sounds.

This soothing environment teaches your mind that you’re safe and eliminates some of those stress hormones keeping your brain alert when it’s supposed to be relaxed.

Stop Negative Habits

Next, try to reduce the negative habits that increase grinding. If you smoke, do drugs, or drink alcohol excessively, begin cutting back and watch the effects it has on your bruxism symptoms.

Consider a Quality, Custom Night Guard

Finally, look at night guards and invest in the one that seems right for your level of bruxing. Night guards are worn while you sleep, fitting over the upper or lower teeth and preventing them from touching. Without that traction, your jaw relaxes and your teeth can’t grind!

Dentists recommend these oral accessories for patients who grind their teeth, but you don’t need to have yours made at the dental office. 

Instead, check out our high-quality, custom-made night guards at JS Dental Lab. These options are affordable and professional, and shipped straight to your door!

3. Gum Disease and Your Immune System’s Response

Your immune system is powerful and complex. It kicks in whenever an intruder enters the body, fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria.

But stress weakens the warrior cells to the point that it’s hard for them to do their jobs. Stress hormones suppress the immune system’s response, as well. When that happens, gum disease can progress.

Gingivitis and periodontitis are infections of the gums. Gingivitis is reversible, so if you catch it early and take care of your oral health, you can stop this problem and keep it from causing more damage.

But left untreated, gingivitis becomes periodontitis, an infection that impacts the immune system further, allowing bacteria and germs into the bloodstream. 

Preventing Gum Disease

Periodontitis’s main side effect is bad breath; no one wants that. However, the problems this condition causes also include tooth loss, diabetes, heart disease, and even dementia.

The best way to eliminate periodontal disease is to keep up with your oral health routine.

Visit the dentist regularly for cleanings and exams. Your dentist will catch the signs of gum disease early, allowing you to prevent gingivitis from turning into periodontitis.

4. Dry Mouth

Your salivary system is often overlooked. What’s the big deal about spit, anyway? 

The truth is, this system is an essential part of your body’s health. Without it, you can’t eat, digest food, or breathe correctly!

However, as mentioned earlier, stress can cause your salivary system to slow down, making it challenging to do these normal things. Without saliva, your teeth are at risk of decay and damage.

The official term for dry mouth isn’t cottonmouth, as most people call it. It’s xerostomia, and it happens to about one in five adults. Xerostemia stems from insufficient saliva production.

Drinking water throughout the day prevents dry mouth, but since you don’t stay hydrated while sleeping, you can wake up feeling all cotton-y.

Occasional dry mouth isn’t too concerning, but it can lead to that dreaded morning breath when it happens regularly. More urgently, cottonmouth causes tooth decay, cavities, teeth and gum sensitivity, and trouble swallowing.

And when you can’t rinse away the leftover sugary foods you just ate, those particles stick to your tooth enamel, turn into bacteria, and begin to eat away at your teeth and gums.

Preventing Dry Mouth

The solution to avoiding dry mouth depends on what’s causing it. Dehydration, medications, and sleep apnea are common causes of this issue. But if it’s stress-related, consider these tips to manage your anxiety and saliva production at the same time:

• Stay hydrated with water and other non-sugary or acidic beverages.
• Add sugar-free gum or candies to your in-between-meals diet to boost your saliva production.
• Breathe through your nose to keep your mouth closed more often.
• Skip the alcohol and caffeine, which can dehydrate you.
• Avoid taking over-the-counter antihistamines or decongestants for sore throats or sinus infections, which have natural dehydrating properties.

Following these small habit changes, even during times of stress, can help increase your saliva production and decrease the release of stress hormones.

Learn more: 4 Possible Reasons You're Waking Up With Dry Mouth [Is it Stress?]

Conclusion

You already know that regular checkups and daily dental care are essential to your overall oral health. But your mental health matters, too.

When stress is part of your daily routine, it can turn into dental problems like gum disease, ulcers, and teeth grinding.

If only the solution to your anxiety and wellness was as easy as a quick dentistry fix! 

However, while you work on reducing your stress levels, let our professionals at JS Dental Lab help take away some of your worries with our custom-fit night guards. Visit our site today to find out how a high-quality, professional-grade oral appliance can be the first step to lowering your stress!