Science is continuing to research and demonstrate the strong link between our emotional heath and our physical health. These two, which may have been thought, at one point in history, to be unrelated, actually have great and real impacts on each other. Just as physical sensations like pain can cause us to develop a more negative emotional state like irritability, so can negative emotions like anxiety or positive ones like contentment affect the health of something important like our heart.
The health of your mouth has also been strongly linked to overall health. So learning how your emotional state can impact your oral health is very important. Let’s look at some of the common ways that your emotional state can impact oral health and then we’ll talk about what we can do to improve both at the same time.
Bruxism
Bruxism is the clinical term for what you might call: clenching, grinding, gnashing or gritting the teeth. For some, bruxism is so severe that they do serious damage to their teeth and jaw and may even require reconstructive surgery. However, in most cases, it can be treated more simply. You can check out our full article on bruxism here.
The most common cause of bruxism is stress and anxiety. While stress may be unavoidable in our lives, we may or may not respond to stress with negative emotions like negative self-talk, worrying or even anger and sadness. This build up of negative emotion causes many to develop this very real physical condition.
Gum Disease
Gum disease, or periodontal disease, as your dentist will call it, is caused by bacteria. Bacteria are found naturally in our bodies, but they can wreak havoc in our mouths when we allow them to get out of control. If your gums bleed when you floss, then you have at least some form of gum disease. In more severe cases, an area of the gums will become very inflamed and sore, which, if left untreated, can lead to tooth loss.
Your emotional state can impact these bacteria in two significant ways. 1st, when we are allowing anxiety to control our state of mind, our immune systems become weak and are unable to keep these bacteria in check. 2nd, when people are experiencing depression or extreme sadness, they may not take the best care of their teeth and gums. Both of these will lead to gum disease over a short to moderate period of time.
Canker Sores
A canker sore is an extremely painful ulcer that forms at the end of a nerve in your mouth. They may develop one at a time. Or you may experience many at the same time. Canker sores are thought to be caused by stress, but it is unclear why some people do not get them.
Improving Your Oral Health
Just as negative emotion can cause poor oral health, the opposite is also true. By improving your emotional state, you can improve your oral health.
Stress management - Learning how to effectively manage stress, will help reduce the impact on your health.
Get some exercise - When we are stressed, certain hormones build up in our bodies. These hormones are part of our body’s defense against danger. But when we are stressed we produce more than we need to face the real or perceived threat that is causing stress. They can be released with exercise. Additionally, exercise causes our bodies to produce endorphins, hormones that improve our mood and make us feel better.
Drink plenty of water - Dehydration puts a lot of stress on the body. And our body can't get rid of toxins that can cause poor health. Combined with emotional stress, dehydration can cause stress reactions to be much worse. So drink some water.
Eat fresh, whole foods - The chemicals and lack of nutrition found in most processed foods are well-known to contribute to emotional disorders like depression, anxiety and ADHD. Eating more whole foods can help with your emotional state, not to mention, boost your system with nutrients that you may be lacking. You can also check out our article on foods to improve oral health here.
It is important to remember that our body and mind are interrelated and impact each other in many ways. By improving one we can contribute to the health of the other. When we remember that we have to take care of the whole body, we can improve our oral and our overall health.