Tooth damage caused by bruxism and poor diet

Stress levels appear to be rising across the UK and perhaps it’s not surprising. Firstly there was the stress associated with potentially catching Covid-19, followed by the anxiety associated with being in lockdown for weeks on end. Finally, just at the time when things seem to be improving slightly, some are reporting concern at being encouraged to return to work in an environment in which they don’t feel entirely safe.

Perhaps anxiety is inevitable at times like these, but it remains a fact that stress can have a negative effect on our overall health and also on our teeth and gums.  In today’s Bradley and Partners Dental and Implant Clinic blog, we will take a look at two ways in which stress can affect our mouth health as well as offering some suggestions to help alleviate it.

How does stress affect our oral health?

There are two main ways in which our anxiety can be harmful to our teeth and gums. The first of this is Bruxism, or teeth grinding.

Although we may have seen characters do this in cartoons when something untoward happens, the reality is that for most of us, any teeth grinding tends to happen when we are asleep. This makes it very difficult to prevent, although mouth guards may be helpful in some cases. Grinding our teeth together for any length of time will inevitably have consequences and in more extreme cases, the teeth may even break or fracture. This is perhaps more likely where teeth have been previously weakened through damage or decay. Although this is dramatic, it is relatively rare and most of us who grind our teeth will suffer mainly from progressive enamel erosion.

As we grind our teeth together, the friction will slowly wear away the enamel layer of our teeth which helps to protect them from decay. Other problems associated with worn enamel include sensitive teeth and even root canal problems. There are options to restore teeth that have suffered in this way, such as crowns or dental veneers, but it is generally advisable that this is done when the patient has managed to stop grinding their teeth together.

The second way in which our teeth and gums can be harmed due to stress is when we let our diet slip and start to eat foods that are less ‘friendly’ for our mouths.

Most of us will probably admit to eating less than healthily when we are feeling under pressure. The chances are that we will start eating a lot more ’comfort foods’ including those that are high in sugar levels such as biscuits and sweets. In addition to this, we are likely to consume these products over a period of time, not allowing our saliva time to wash away much of the sugar. This ‘grazing’ method of eating is not good for our teeth even with healthier food, but with foods high in sugar, it greatly increases the risk of tooth decay and gum disease.

Reducing stress levels

Read more ›

Canterbury dentist, Bob Dubbins offers patients some timely advice

Hopefully, all patients of Bradley and Partners Dental and Implant Clinic are following government guidelines at this difficult time and staying indoors except for essential trips and a little daily exercise. It is a challenging time for many of us and it looks set to continue, in some form, for a few more weeks yet.

Fortunately, to help us through, there are thousands of articles available online, covering subjects such as how to get creative, keep fit or maybe even learn a new language etc. So even with the restrictions, some people will be able to draw positives, whilst for others, simply getting through it by relaxing as much as possible may be their preferred option.

As your Canterbury dental practice is currently closed for physical visits, and will be until we are allowed to open again, it is particularly important that our patients make sure to really take care of their teeth. We are currently unable to treat even minor problems such as a toothache or a lost filling, so below we offer you some tips to help you come out of the current ‘lockdown’ with healthy teeth and gums.

Brushing and flossing

One of the most important things that you can do is to keep your daily brushing routine, and, if you don’t already, add flossing to it as well. Even remembering to brush our teeth twice a day might be challenging for some of us, with our usual daily routines dramatically altered. Remembering to brush our teeth at night might be easy enough as little may have changed there, but our morning routines will possibly be quite different. We recommend that you find a new regular time to brush your teeth in the morning, perhaps before you go for your morning jog, or whatever fits in with your own daily schedule.

When you do brush your teeth, check how you are doing it. If you currently brush hard with the bristles flat to the surface of the teeth, try a different approach. There is no need to ‘scrub’ your teeth, and in fact, this can damage the enamel surface. Instead brush gently using a circular motion. The other thing that you should do is to point the bristles towards the gums. This allows the bristles to reach beneath the gum line and clean out hidden debris and bacteria that might otherwise lead to decay and/or gum disease. Make sure too that the bristles of your brush are not worn out and change your toothbrush if they are (or the head of an electric one).

For those of you who don’t use dental floss, this is a good opportunity to learn how. Flossing is an excellent and simple way of improving your overall oral health, tackling bacteria and food often gets trapped between the teeth and which is difficult to remove by brushing alone. There are lots of useful videos online that can teach you how to floss. You might find it difficult at first, but there is plenty of time to learn and time is something that a lot of us will have at the moment; so why not use it constructively where you can.

Be careful with your diet

Read more ›

This stage of life can be problematic for young teeth

As parents, we do the best that we can when our children are younger, to make sure that they look after their teeth well. We encourage (and probably ‘nag’ a little) to get them to brush their teeth both morning and night.

Indeed some of us may wish that we had received the same encouragement when we were younger, as we may have grown up with less than healthy teeth ourselves.

Providing that we are diligent with this and supervise and encourage them not to eat too much sugar, most of our children will arrive at the teenage years with at least a reasonably healthy set of teeth, many of which will be their final adult set. Once the ‘teens’ start though, it can be a different matter altogether and things can start to go awry.

Early teens

As we probably know from our own experience, our early teens are where we really start to exert our own independence.  This is a natural part of growing up but it does come with many potential pitfalls, and this applies to our oral health as well. As adults, we may have been able to push our children to clean their teeth and keep an eye open to make sure that they were doing so when younger, but it becomes increasingly difficult to do so as they grow up. When they say they have cleaned their teeth, we generally have to believe them.

As they get older, it isn’t just neglect that can cause problems for their teeth and gums, but other factors come into play too.

Mid to late teens

Read more ›

Have fun, but don’t let overindulgence compromise your oral health!

Christmas is just around the corner and it’s a great time of year when we can get together with family and friends. Many of us will probably let our hair down a little more than usual and perhaps suffer the consequences the next morning!

Of course there is nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves at this time of the year, but it is important that we don’t let our teeth and gums suffer because of it.

There are a few things that we sometimes do (or don’t do) over the holiday period that could have a detrimental effect on our mouth health. So in today’s blog, we offer our Bradley and Partners Dental and Implant Clinic, tooth friendly guide to Christmas!

Snack healthily

If you have been around the shops in Canterbury, you can’t help but have noticed all the extra sugary goodies on sale. Whether sweets, chocolates, cakes or biscuits, all that additional sugar is not good for our teeth (or our waistline).

Instead of the extra chocolates and sweets, why not snack on more tooth friendly foods such as nuts, cheese and vegetable dips over the holiday period? Chocolate can be very nice but we can have too much of a good thing. As we know, high sugar consumption is very likely to lead to tooth decay if it continues over a period of time.

Cigarettes and alcohol

Read more ›