Are Cases Of Bruxism Likely To Rise In 2021?
As community stress levels increase, incidents of teeth grinding could also rise
As if the rapidly rising number of Covid-19 cases and deaths wasn’t enough to cause us stress, anyone watching the news last night must have wondered what is happening in the world as thousands of Trump supporters stormed Washington. Many of us will have probably been glued to our TVs for much of the night and are highly unlikely to have gone to bed in a relaxed manner.
Even in our own lives. There can be many things that cause us stress, and for some, the current lockdown situation will not be helping matters. Unfortunately, our Blue Sky Dental team can’t put the world to rights and fix the problems, but we can offer advice and help for one of the possible consequences in this increase in stress, namely Bruxism, or teeth grinding.
Bruxism
Bruxism largely occurs whilst we sleep and is therefore quite difficult to control. It is generally thought to be related to stress, so, in the current climate, it is probably not surprising that we are expecting to see an increase in the number of patients who are suffering from some of the consequences of this.
In today’s blog, we will take a look at some of the problems that may be associated with this and offer a few suggestions that might help in its prevention, or at least, reduction.
Effects of teeth grinding
Although we have come across a few fairly extreme cases of teeth that have shattered due to highly aggressive grinding; for most people the main problem is gradual wearing away of the enamel on our teeth. This, in itself, will weaken the teeth and does make them more likely to break. More common though are problems that present themselves more gradually.