“ Your teeth shine like stars”, said Ram to Shyam. “Absolutely! They come off at night! And mind you nothing to be proud of. I was letting everyday stress overtake my lifestyle and living. This resulted in my teeth getting affected and an entire gamut of consequent health issues. I had to get dentures to begin sorting my health troubles. Mark my words, take care of your teeth!” were the sage words of wisdom by Shyam to Ram.

This blog of ours is about how a stressful lifestyle and living have an impact on your teeth, which in turn has adverse consequences on your overall health.

A disclaimer, as ever… while the blog may get tad serious, we have every intention of getting you a little scared and make you take care of your teeth better!!!

Without further rambling, let’s dive headlong into the blog.

Stress: The age old enemy!

Yes, you have heard about stress being the cause for just about every health hazard you face. The funny thing is it is true! Why would doctors keep harping on it otherwise?

Okay, question time. Are you dissatisfied with your work? Does your boss trouble you a lot? Worried about saving up enough to beat inflation? Family troubles besiege you? Is your answer to even one of these questions a a “Yes”? If so, then stress is slowly but steadily building up in your system. And know what? It has a huge negative impact on your teeth. Worries stress your body out and amongst the first things which get affected are your 32 pearls of wisdom!

Do you gnash your teeth often when you are stressed? (This was just an extra question and is not the reason for your teeth getting weaker! Unless you gnash really hard and break them!)

You are kidding! How does Stress affect my teeth?

Well before you think we are kidding, let us talk about the consequences. We all agree with the fact that stress is not good for the health. We will now elucidate how stress is related to oral health, and hence your holistic health.

First and foremost, if you are stressed out your brain conveys this to the entire body. All parts of the body work extra hard to handle the stress and still function optimally. Your teeth being the first step towards your getting energy (umm.. you eat food for energy, digestion starts from your mouth), have to work extra to help you beat the stress and still feel energetic. Now stress has a habit of piling up, the load on your teeth piles up to a point where they start weakening. What happens when your teeth start getting weaker? A whole lot of things!

You may start getting inflammation in your mouth. This leads to the weakening of your jaws, a slight change in your looks, and a dent in your confidence levels. Not just this, there is an established link between inflammation in your mouth and inflammation in blood cells which lead to heart diseases!

Poor oral hygiene leads to a lowering of your body’s immunity levels and weakening of the body. Studies have established deep links between bad oral health and osteoarthritis.

Stress causes diabetes is a known fact. What compounds the problem is that people with Diabetes end up having weak teeth which lead to other health issues!

Lung diseases like pneumonia get worse when a person has poor oral hygiene. The increased presence of bacteria in the mouth increases the attack on the body which worsens a lung condition.

Poor oral hygiene which leads to mouth ulcers causes irritable bowel syndrome and immune disorders. Now this is scary because it shows that stress, which affects your oral health, causes a serious weakening of your body and overall general health!