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A Guide to Creatively Handling a Child's Dental Health

Ways Your Dentist Can Help You With Stress, Anxiety, And Related Symptoms In Your Life

23 January 2019

Bella Snyder

Your body's overall physical and mental health is comprised of a number of variables, each relating to your unique lifestyle and circumstances. For example, if you are diabetic, this can put extra stress on your body's organs and your eyesight. Or if you are under a great deal of mental stress due to your work or personal life, it can cause physical pain to your joints and your jaw and can even give you digestive problems.

With stress being a big problem in your everyday life, it makes sense to do all you can to reduce, minimize, and eliminate the stress as much as possible to improve your health. Here are some ways your dentist can help you reduce and control your stress, anxiety, and their related symptoms to improve your well-being and quality of life.

Stop Nighttime Teeth Grinding

You may not even realize you have a problem related to grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw while you sleep. If you wake up in the morning and have a stiff, hard-to-open jaw, a headache, indentations on the sides of your tongue, an earache, or chipped or cracked teeth, you might be clenching your teeth or jaw during the night. If you are still not sure, you can ask your bed partner if they have ever woken to the sound of you grinding your teeth. This can be a good sign you are suffering from bruxism.

Talk to your dentist about your symptoms, and they can help you clearly diagnose this condition. Fortunately, once you are aware it is a problem, you and your dentist can help you treat it and reduce the stress and anxiety that can cause it. Your dentist can fit you with a nighttime bite guard to protect your teeth from grinding upon one another and also to hold your jaw in place and prevent the damaging subconscious movements. Then you can practice meditation, yoga, or another form of releasing your emotions to help you reduce your stress and anxiety.

Bruxism is mainly caused by psychological stress and anxiety and manifests while you sleep, affecting one in three people. It can cause problems in your oral health with broken and cracked teeth, swollen gums, and sore jaw and facial muscles. And if it is left untreated, it can cause you permanent problems with your jaw bone joints with temporomandibular joint problems (TMJ).

Improve the Appearance of Unattractive Teeth

The way your teeth look to others can affect other's impressions of you, and it can also affect your perception of yourself and your self-esteem. When you constantly worry about your crooked, discolored, or missing teeth, it can add unnecessary stress and anxiety on you in social situations or at work, even to the point of preventing you from trying to move up at your job. Fortunately, your dentist can help you with this area of your life to remove the stress and anxiety you may have from the physical features of your teeth and smile.

Ask your dentist about tooth bonding, which repairs many types of tooth damage to improve your appearance. And the great part about this service is that it can be done in one visit. Your dentist can use bonding to even fix a gap between your teeth or to repair a broken tooth. They match the composite repair resin to your teeth so it is the same color as the rest of your teeth to match and blend in, then they apply it onto the tooth and form and polish it to make it smooth and shiny.

Talk to your dentist about your options for this procedure and make the arrangements to improve your appearance and reduce your stress.

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