Could Your Oral Health Be Impacting Your Mental Well-Being?

Nick Fewings

Oral health issues are some of the most common problems people deal with. 

It could be discolored teeth that stop you from smiling in public. That crazy chipped tooth you can’t remember getting. Or even a tooth that’s so painful you’re counting the hours until you can see an emergency dentist.

All of these are real issues that affect not only your comfort and confidence but also, by extension, your mental health. According to the CDC, there are clear two-way connections between oral and mental health. This simply means that while stress or anxiety can make it hard to keep up with oral hygiene, poor oral health can also make mental health symptoms worse.

In this article, we’ll explore this connection between oral health and mental health and share practical tips that can yield significant returns to your overall well-being.

The Connection Between Oral Health and the Mind

The human body is made up of hundreds of parts. None of these parts operates in isolation. When one hurts, you'll likely get a reaction somewhere else entirely. 

Maybe you have an infected tooth, which can sometimes cause a swollen lymph node in your neck. That's your body's way of fighting the bacteria. 

The pain from that infected tooth and the constant discomfort can, over time, trigger a stress response, causing your body to release elevated levels of cortisol and adrenaline. What starts as a “small” dental issue can quietly snowball into stress, anxiety, or a sense of low energy.

And guess what? It's actually a two-way street. 

When you’re stressed or anxious, oral hygiene is often the first to take a back seat. You don't brush twice a day as recommended. Or you clench your jaws or grind your teeth at night. 

This neglect can kickstart oral health problems that you may not have in the first place. The result? More stress. 

It’s the classic "chicken and egg" situation. Stress can lead you to neglect your oral hygiene, and that neglect creates more stress.

Signs Oral Health Might Be Affecting Your Mental Well-being

So, how can you tell if your state of mind is related to what's happening inside your mouth? Here are some signs:

Social Withdrawal

One clear sign that your oral health might be playing havoc with your mental well-being is when it starts showing up in your social life. It begins with your smiling less and less in photos. Next, you start to cover your mouth when you laugh. 

Things like these can signal that you're worried about how your teeth look, and when you get to this stage, your self-esteem will take a big hit. The result? You begin to avoid social gatherings, leaving you feeling isolated or disconnected from friends and family.

Constant Irritability

If you are experiencing teeth problems and you find that you're not in a predictable mood from one hour to the next, that's a sure sign that the problem has bitten into your mental health. You might say, "But teeth problems shouldn't trigger irritability". The truth is that they absolutely can. 

Even small aches and pains from gum disease can put your mood on a swing where you're fine one minute and grumpy the next. Funny enough, you might not even realize that your short fuse is actually coming from a low-level, constant physical stressor in your mouth.

High Cortisol Levels

We touched on this briefly in the previous section, but it's worth an in-depth look. Another sign that your oral health may be affecting your mental well-being is when you're experiencing constant stress that can be traced to persistent dental pain.

Pain, sometimes, triggers your body to produce high levels of cortisol. This is your body's main stress hormone and controls how your brain handles things like fear, anxiety, and other emotions. High cortisol levels can cause you to feel constantly edgy or emotionally drained.

Treat the underlying dental condition, and you'll start feeling a lot less stressed.

Dealing With Oral Health For Overall Well-Being

Experiencing teeth problems and think it's affecting your mental well-being? Here are practical steps that can make a real difference.

Prioritize Daily Care

Kojo Sarfo, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, explains in a recent Time article that when people are depressed, routine tasks like brushing teeth become much harder to do. 

But daily dental care is actually one of the best things you can do to reclaim your oral and mental health. It doesn't even have to be perfect. If brushing twice daily feels impossible right now, do what you can. Once is better than zero. Even little things like swishing with mouthwash can do a world of good.

Regular Dental Visits

It's never a good idea to wait until the situation worsens before getting professional help, and self-medication can only do so much. According to Aegis Dental Group, over-the-counter pain relievers can help manage the pain temporarily, but a dentist is the best person to diagnose the problem and provide the right treatment.

Sometimes, going to the dentist isn't even about fixing a problem. It's about prevention. And you know what they say: prevention is better than cure.

Watch Your Diet

When you're stressed or depressed, the temptation may be there to reach for comfort foods. The problem is that these foods and drinks are usually sugary or processed. This is not saying that you should never eat cookies or ice cream again. That would be difficult. 

The idea is for you to be careful about what goes on your plate. Balancing things out helps. Your mouth bacteria love sugar, and feeding them constantly creates problems.

Limiting your sugar intake to ideally 5% of your total energy intake, according to the World Health Organization, will minimize the risk of certain dental problems.

Wrapping Up

So, could your oral health be impacting your mental well-being? The short answer is yes. It's important to clarify, however, that not everyone with gum pain will get depressed. Also, having perfect teeth won’t solve all mental stress. 

But the connection is there, and it’s stronger than most of us realize.

So, maybe the next time you think about skipping a dental check-up because “nothing hurts,” remember this: investing in your oral health could very well be investing in your peace of mind, too.