COVID Has Led To Bruxism ‘Pandemic’
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- Published: Friday, 16 April 2021 09:37
- Written by Chris Tapper
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Dentists worldwide are reporting a surge in tooth grinding caused by pandemic stress.
Practitioners from the UK and many other countries have been noticing a substantial increase in the numbers of cracked teeth caused by bruxing since COVID-19 was identified and lockdowns were imposed.
The Irish Dental Association said this week “While there is a lack of hard data, conversations with patients relating to coronavirus anxiety and a rise in cases of damaged teeth point to a growing problem.”
A Twitter survey of UK dental professionals by DentistGoneBadd showed over 83% of respondents experienced a big increase in patients experiencing fractures, attrition, or TMJ problems.
“I would probably get a patient a day talking about it,” Dr Caroline Robins told The Irish Times. Before the pandemic, she said “I would have had one a week.”
The head of the General Practitioner Committee at the IDA, Dr Robins said she has noticed an obvious pattern in patient conversations in recent months.
“It’s hard to put a number on it but it’s definitely there. I have only worked since half past eight this morning and [by lunchtime] I have already had two [patients with related damage],” she told the Irish Times.
The IDA noted a similar upsurge in bruxism about a decade ago, during the economic downturn.
Last month, a survey by the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute found that 70% of respondents had seen an increase in the numbers of patients with tooth-grinding and clenching. That figure had risen by ten per cent from the autumn of 2020.
WEB MD reported "Our polling has served as a barometer for pandemic stress affecting patients and communities seen through the eyes of dentists," said Marko Vujicic, chief economist and vice president of the institute.
A questionnaire sent out to 1800 people in Israel and Poland by Tel Aviv University found during the countries’ first lockdowns, there was a rise in daytime jaw-clenching and night-time tooth-grinding.
Yahoo Finance reported that women aged 35 to 55 endured the worst symptoms, which the scientists put down to them being “Cooped up at home with young children.”
In March, the British Dental Journal published a letter which said “With increasing levels of unemployment, isolation and changes in normal routine during the pandemic, impacts on mental health are unavoidable. Elevated levels of stress and anxiety have a well-established link to bruxism, a common factor that predisposes a tooth to crack and fracture.”
“Consequently, there has been an increase in patients presenting with features of tooth-wear, attributed to grinding and jaw clenching. Studies have illustrated increasing levels of bruxism and temporomandibular disorders in those suffering with an aggravated psycho-emotional status. Having diagnosed several patients attending in pain with tooth fractures, the prevalence of such pathology has also been seen increasingly in dental practices.”
(D. Dadnam, C. Dadnam and H. Al-Saffar https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-021-2788-30)
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