Dental News

Links Between Oral Health and Emotional Health

June 10, 2016

Learn how your oral health and your emotional health affect one another.

Links Between Oral Health and Emotional Health

As believers in holistic dentistry, we know that in order to provide the best possible care for your oral health, we need to consider your overall health as well. After all, the two are definitely related! In fact, even your emotional health and your oral health are related. Here’s how.

When You’re Stressed, Your Oral Health Suffers

You may already know that stress can have a negative impact on virtually every system in the body. Repeated or prolonged feelings of stress can actually cause inflammation and weaken your immune system, which will be bad news for your teeth and gums. With a weakened immune system, your body will be less able to fight off infections from oral bacteria and you could easily end up with periodontitis aka severe gum disease.

Another oral health issues associated with stress is bruxism or teeth grinding. Often, people don’t even realize they are doing anything to damage their teeth. The might grind in their sleep or they might be clenching their jaw a lot, not realizing this can cause grinding damage. Over time, bruxism can cause your tooth enamel to wear down, exposing you to sensitivity and possibly cavities.

When You’re Unhappy with Your Teeth, Your Emotional Health Suffers

Of course, oral health problems can also cause or contribute to emotional health problems. For example, if you have very crooked or severely stained teeth, or if you have suffered from tooth decay or gum disease to the point where you have lost a tooth, you might feel extremely self-conscious about it. This can create social anxiety and even isolation if you allow your feelings to keep you from interacting with others.

Visit Your Dentist for Help

The good news is, your dentist can help you address any oral health issue you may be experiencing, whether that issue is caused by emotional distress or causing you to experience emotional distress.

For example, if you are prone to gum disease infections due to stress, your dentist can help by providing deep cleaning treatments called root scaling & planing. These treatments will flush the oral bacteria out of your gum pockets and smooth out the roots of your teeth to make it harder for bacteria to adhere to them. In combination with improved home care, this will help compensate for your immune system’s reduced ability to control populations of oral bacteria.

If you are feeling upset about your unattractive teeth, your dentist can help by providing cosmetic dental treatments that can correct or conceal your imperfections and give you the smile of your dreams.

To learn more, please contact California Dental Group today.

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