The pandemic has manifested itself in several ways; including your oral health.
Dentists across the country have reported a surge in cracked and fractured teeth during the pandemic. Covid-19 itself doesn’t make teeth more fragile, but the delay of healthcare during the pandemic along with the anxiety and fear of contracting the virus or having a family, friend, neighbor falling ill or dying, loss or change of job, home schooling children, working from home, the social unrest within the country and world politics, all lead to stress in our lifestyle.
Stress is a major contributor for the increase in cracked teeth and stress can express itself when people clench or brux their teeth. Car accidents, falls, chewing popcorn seeds, ice or some other event may crack teeth — but in the absence of recalling a particular event, clenching and bruxing might have caused the tooth injury. The American Dental Association said there was a 59% increase in teeth grinding and 55% increase in broken teeth and 25% increase in cavities back in 2020.
Tooth fracture is a problem in dentistry and is the 3rd most common cause of tooth loss after dental cavities (caries) and periodontal (gum) disease. Prepandemic data show about 9.5% of all extracted teeth are due to fractures and 1/20 people fracture a tooth each year. Teeth are naturally brittle, and everyone has tiny fissures in their teeth from chewing, grinding and everyday use. Caries or defects in older dental work can make teeth become more prone to fracture or breaking. They can take only so much trauma before they eventually break. Think of a tiny crack in a car windshield that with weathering, will become bigger and bigger. The crack in a tooth can travel through the enamel but if the crack progresses to the root of the tooth, there’s no way to save it. We want to prevent any added stress from grinding that could cause these microscopic cracks to propagate into larger cracks and, ultimately, a catastrophic failure requiring root canal, a crown or even the loss of the tooth. Unfortunately, as with many aspects of health, age alone can be a significant factor in tooth fracture. Dentin tooth structure from 55 year old patients have a 50% reduction in strength compared to that of a 35 year old.
Wearing a customized mouth guard during the evening is one common way to protect teeth from grinding and bruxing. Instead of teeth grinding together and wearing down, the mouth guard acts as a protective barrier between the teeth.
A small crack in the tooth left untreated can cause catastrophic damage.
Oral health plays a vital role in a person’s overall health and should not be ignored. The cost for routine checkup and cleaning is much less than the cost of an impending crown, root canal or tooth extraction. One of the biggest manifestations of the pandemic was delay in scheduling health care visits. Patients should not skip or postpone their regular cleaning and dental checkups any longer due to safety concerns related to COVID 19. Dental offices have a very strict sanitation procedures and have put additional precautions in place. In fact, the COVID 19 prevalence rate of dentist infections are very low compared to the general population and to other health care professionals.
If you haven’t already done so, make an appointment with your dentist. Stay up on your six-month screening and cleaning schedule to prevent stress related damage to your teeth.