How Stress Affects Your Dental Health

 

When it comes to stress, mental or emotional strain may be the first thought to come to mind, but stress also greatly impacts a person’s dental health. At All Coast Dental in Pacific Beach, CA, Drs. Joseph and Julie Boulos pride themselves in treating all things teeth, including any stress-induced condition you may face. Here are a few ways stress affects your dental health. 

Teeth Grinding

Bruxism or clenching and grinding of the teeth can be caused by stress and anxiety. Oftentimes, you’re unaware you’re even grinding since occurs during sleep, leading to enamel damage and even jaw soreness and headaches. To protect your teeth from the damaging effects of grinding, your Pacific Beach, CA dentists recommend a dental night guard to wear. 

Gum Disease

Another condition potentially caused by stress is gum disease. If you’re under extreme stress, you are more inclined to snacking on sugary food or even forgetting to take care of your teeth. Failure to brush or floss regularly increases your risk of tooth decay and gum disease.

Canker Sores

Wondering why those pesky and painful spots appear in your mouth? Canker sores or mouth ulcers are also thought to be triggered by stress or a decreased immune system. These shallow wounds occur around the insides of your lips and make it difficult to eat or talk. These sores naturally disappear after 7-10 days, but if your sores are recurring, your dentists at All Coast Dental located in Pacific Beach, CA will provide other forms of treatment.

To learn more about how stress impacts your oral health, visit Drs. Joseph and Julie Boulos at 2180 Garnet Avenue, Suite 1-K Pacific Beach, CA 92109.

Myofascial Pain Syndrome

 

If you’ve ever had an issue inside your mouth, you’re most likely aware of the varying degrees of pain that come with it. Mouth pain ranges anywhere from mild discomfort to feeling like your head is exploding, just from a toothache and tenderness. All Coast Dental in Pacific Beach, CA, is committed to correcting the problem in your mouth and helping you manage any pain associated with it. This includes Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS). Drs. Julie and Joseph Boulos take pride in educating patients about how to prevent future oral problems. 

MPS commonly occurs in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). The pain is caused by tension, fatigue, or spasms in the jaw muscles. MPS is usually triggered by bruxism, a condition where a person clenches or grinds their teeth during sleep. Nightguards are a great way to prevent bruxism and ultimately the jaw soreness that is felt in the morning. MPS is not limited to just the jaw muscles, it can occur anywhere in the body including the back and neck muscles. 

Other treatments and preventions of MPS include:

- Splint guard, mouthguard, or nightguard

- Mild analgesics

- Physical therapy modalities

- Anxiolytic before bed

Are you suffering from MPS? Come in for a checkup. Drs. Julie or Joseph Boulos will assess the problem area in your mouth and get you started on a treatment plan. All Coast Dental is located at 2180 Garnet Ave., Suite 1-K, in Pacific Beach, CA 92109. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please visit allcoastdental.net or call 858-270-4904.

Reasons for Wisdom Teeth Extractions

It’s common for dentists to recommend that people have their wisdom teeth removed, but you might not understand why this is. It’s not because dentists perfunctorily recommend extractions; although safe, those aren’t a first resort. Instead, it’s because wisdom teeth often put a patient at risk for gum disease and misalignment. At All Coast Dental in Pacific Beach, we provide care to patients of all ages and provide wisdom teeth extractions as well as gum disease treatment, so we wanted to explain to patients the danger of pericoronitis.

The wisdom teeth are the largest molars, and they usually don’t erupt until a person is on the cusp of adolescence. This is a problem because modern people’s mouths usually aren’t large enough to allow their wisdom teeth to erupt fully. Instead, the wisdom teeth become impacted, which is what dentists call a tooth that is stuck and only partially exposed. This creates problems for the other teeth because the wisdom teeth are pushing on them, moving them out of place. The partly-erupted teeth also tend to be difficult to clean. Food debris gets trapped under the gum flap partially covering the teeth, which is called an operculum, and bacterial infections result. “Pericoronitis” is the term we use to refer to inflammation in the area surrounding a tooth’s crown.

During a routine cleaning, we can remove food debris from the operculum and prescribe antibiotics for an infection. But the problem is likely to recur, and even if the operculum is removed, the impacted tooth is still hard to brush and puts pressure on other teeth. Extracting an impacted tooth might be more complicated than a regular extraction if we need to make an incision in the gum, but in those cases, we will monitor the patient’s recovery and help them to understand how to care for themselves during the short period of recovery.

Drs. Julie and Joseph Boulos operate All Coast Dental at 2180 Garnet Ave, Suite 1-K, Pacific Beach, California, 92109. To schedule an appointment, call 858-270-4904 or visit All Coast Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Benefits of Implants

If you need to get teeth replaced, you’ve come to the right place at All Coast Dental in Pacific Beach. Our family practice offers several options for dental restorations, allowing us to treat patients in a wide variety of circumstances. But for long-lasting stability, one of the best treatments is a dental implant. These devices not only replace teeth, they also help restore the jaw bone, and can prevent a lot of other oral health problems.

An implant is like an artificial tooth root. It inserts in the jaw bone and supports an artificial crown. This differs from traditional dentures, which only replace the visible parts of teeth, in that the implant is immobile and spurs the growth of new bone tissue. When a tooth is lost, the jaw bone that used to surround its root recedes, causing the patient’s face to shorten. This can lead to temporomandibular joint pain and cause a person to grind their remaining teeth, further destabilizing them. But when an implant is inserted, new bone grows to surround it, in a process called osseointegration that takes a few months. When osseointegration is complete, a ceramic crown can be cemented onto the implant head and cared for like a normal tooth.

A patient will need to have some remaining jaw bone tissue to be a good candidate for an implant, and we’ll monitor the osseointegration process to ensure it’s working. But even if they lack bone tissue, it may be possible for a patient to get additive treatment. Implanted artificial teeth are still vulnerable to decay, and if the area around an implant becomes inflamed, the implant may have to be replaced. But most people can prevent this through regular brushing and flossing, and implants often last for over ten years.

Drs. Julie and Joseph Boulos operate All Coast Dental at 2180 Garnet Ave, Suite 1-K, Pacific Beach, California, 92109. To schedule an appointment, call 858-270-4904 or visit All Coast Dental and fill out a contact sheet.