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By Chris Brown

A mouthful of problems

Grinding away: pandemic has dentists seeing a rise in teeth problems

Dec 22, 2021 | 4:47 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – After nearly two years of COVID people have become familiar with some of the physical signs of stress, such as weight gain or chewed fingernails.

In other areas, like inside the mouth, signs are harder to spot.

Dr. Benoit Labonne of Crestwood Dental Clinic says some patients haven’t been keeping their regular dental appointments during the pandemic. Recently dentists have noticed an increase in damaged teeth, and are dealing with more biological cavities as well as something that’s called mechanical tooth wear.

That’s often caused by people grinding their teeth, a condition called bruxism.

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“Grinding left to right at night, it creates these swinging motions and it causes these little fractures,” explains Labonne. “So some symptoms of that would be like waking up with a sore jaw, sometimes a little bit of sensitive you know hot and cold around those neck areas of the tooth. And so when you see that in a clinic it’s pretty apparent that someone’s a grinder because it’s pretty close to nearly all of the teeth.”

He says people may not be aware they’re doing it, but the person sleeping beside them probably hears it. It happens most commonly when people are sleeping but can also occur when they are awake.

Labonne likens it to when a tree swings in the wind. The most stress is where the trunk meets the grass. Dentists look for the same sort of stress or looseness where the tooth meets the gums.

He adds people who are actively grinding at night can wear a special mouth guard to balance the forces down the tooth rather than left to right.

When it comes to biological cavities brought on by poor eating habits, Labonne says you can have the biggest piece of pie, but have it at mealtime.

“Try not to have that pie frequently throughout the day. That’s when the sugar gets taken up by the bacteria and ends up eating away your teeth,” he says.