In sign of times, dentists in Massachusetts report increase in ‘stress-related' teeth grinding
In the survey of about 140 dentists, just over 75 percent reported an increase in 'stress-related' teeth grinding or clenching in patients.
Advertisement
Nearly 65 percent reported seeing more people with chipped or cracked teeth.
The survey was conducted from June 18 to July 18, according to the dental society.
About 60 percent of dentists who participated said patients with teeth grinding problems reported they felt the grinding was primarily due to stress. Separately, 50 percent of dentists said patients are mentioning stress more often during their visits.
At Rooted Dental in Brookline,
at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'I just don't think the stress left,' said Gresham, 37. 'People hold stress, it just stays in our bodies, and this is the reaction.'
Advertisement
'I can't say it's really slowed down at all,' said Spitz, the president of the Massachusetts Dental Society. 'In fact, I think it's getting worse.'
Gresham said her patients have mentioned feelings of stress tied to work, money and politics. In recent years, she said, busier lifestyles may have led people to carry more 'baseline stress.'
Current events, divisive
political rhetoric, and major changes to government policy
are affecting people's stress levels, she said, especially anxiety about President Trump's agenda.
'A lot of my patients are saying political stress is a thing,' Gresham said. 'Our patients say they're very politically active and this era of this presidency is stressing them out.'
College students seeking treatment for cracked teeth tend to report being stressed about work and finances, Gresham said.
'Young people are more anxious than I think people were when I was their age,' she said.
Clenching and grinding leads to tooth fractures or cracks, which could necessitate the removal of the tooth, Spitz said. If a tooth is removed and not replaced, that leads to more grinding and a 'domino effect,' he said, equating the problem to books on a shelf.
'Imagine a shelf with books all in alignment, all straight up and down. Then imagine you remove the middle book,' said Spitz, 57. 'They start leaning and moving, the same thing happens with teeth.'
Spitz said his patients report stress at work, home, and in the world of politics.
Advertisement
'People talk about political stress, they're well acquainted with stress,' he said. 'They're coming in telling me, 'I've been under a lot of stress lately,' I feel myself clenching.'
To protect your teeth and your bite, don't ignore symptoms like jaw fatigue, headaches, inability to chew certain foods or sensitivity to temperature, which is often caused by tiny fractures, Gresham said.
If put off too long, grinding problems 'just exacerbate the snowball effect, because there's no protection left in the bite,' he warned.
Claire Thornton can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
7 minutes ago
- UPI
Korean scientists say they developed oral drug against COVID-19
An illustration is intended to show how CP-COV03, or Xafty, works against COVID-19 in the body. Image courtesy of Hyundai Bioscience SEOUL, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A group of scientists, primarily from South Korean universities, has confirmed the efficacy of an oral anti-viral treatment, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, against COVID-19 after a clinical trial. If a later-stage trial is successful and the medication is approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the drug could be available next year. Developed by Korea's biotech company Hyundai Bioscience, the drug was found to address major COVID-19 symptoms listed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including cough, headache, sore throat, nausea and chills. The findings were published in the latest edition of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications. "We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 300 patients to learn that CP-COV03 was effective in improving COVID-19 symptoms for more than 48 hours, with no serious adverse events," Dankook University professor Choy Jin-ho told UPI. He is one of the paper's corresponding co-authors. "Patients treated with CP-COV03 returned to usual health more quickly and had a lower risk of hospitalization compared to the control group. This shows that the drug is safe and effective in patients suffering from mild to moderate COVID-19," he said. Choy said he expects that CP-COV03 to have strong commercial potential because it was based on niclosamide, a well-known medication previously used to treat tapeworm infections. "Niclosamide's clinical use has been limited due to poor solubility and bioavailability. However, our study indicates that niclosamide-based CP-COV03 works as a safer and more effective alternative to previous COVID-19 treatments such as Paxlovid," Choy said. Hyundai Bioscience noted that the Seoul-based company would develop CP-COV03 as a versatile anti-viral treatment for a range of diseases, beyond just COVID-19. "We are prepared to produce CP-COV03 as a broad-spectrum treatment once we are authorized to do so in our target countries," Hyundai Bioscience CEO Bae Byoung-jun said in a phone interview. "To use CP-COV03 as a treatment for dengue fever, for example, we have received approval to start a seamless phase II/III clinical trial in Vietnam. We hope to launch the study this year, with the aim of bringing the drug to market next year," he said.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Utah vaccine exemption rate rises to No. 2 in nation
Utah now has the nation's second highest rate of vaccine exemptions for kindergartners, as the state's share of fully immunized children continues to drop. Threat level: Utah's kindergarten vaccination rates have long fallen below the 95% needed for herd immunity against highly contagious illnesses — and kids are about to return to school amid a measles outbreak. As of fall 2024, just 88.6% of Utah kindergartners were up to date on their measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines, per new CDC data. Whooping cough was at 88.1%. Meanwhile, whooping cough is spreading in southwest Utah, health officials announced last week. What we're watching: Kindergarten vaccination rates in parts of Utah are dropping toward the 80% herd immunity threshold for polio, per the latest data from the state health department. More than 19% of kindergartners in southwest Utah were not fully vaccinated for polio, with nearly 15% in the central counties. The big picture: Anti-vax sentiments — once considered a liberal trend — gained ground on the political right amid hostility toward COVID prevention measures. A Gallup poll last year found that 69% of respondents viewed childhood vaccines as "extremely" or "very" important, down from 94% in 2001 — a drop researchers attributed to those who lean Republican. By the numbers: More than 10% of Utah kindergartners obtained immunization waivers last fall, up a full percent from the previous year. Only Idaho had a higher rate of exemptions, at 15.4%. The intrigue: Of the 10.3% of Utah kindergartners who sought exemptions, just 0.3% were for medical reasons. About 85% were for "personal" reasons, with "religion" accounting for another 12.5%. Catch up quick: A 2022 Axios analysis of Utah immunization data by ZIP code showed exemptions after 2020 largely spiked in politically conservative areas. Caveat: Vaccine waivers are far more common among online students, covering more than half of the state's nearly 1,500 online kindergartners. Of the 44,000 in-person kindergartners, 9% had exemptions, up from 7.9% a year before. Another 1% were out of compliance — neither vaccinated nor exempt. Flashback: Trump cut more than $30 million in Utah childhood immunization funding in April. Zoom in: Salt Lake County's exemption rate was the lowest of any local health district in the state at 5.5%.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Are electric scooters safe? A rash of injuries, deaths raises concerns.
SAN FRANCISCO – A 77-year-old man was killed after being hit by an electric scooter while crossing a street in downtown San Francisco in July, the type of serious scooter-pedestrian collision the city's police department calls 'uncommon.'' Other types of e-scooter accidents that result in a trip to the emergency room, however, are becoming all too frequent across the nation. The growing popularity of electric scooters – easily accessible for commuters to reach their final destination or tourists to enjoy sightseeing – has been accompanied by skyrocketing numbers of injuries, typically to the riders and at times to others in their way. A 2023 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed that from 2017 – when the devices were first introduced at scale – through 2022, the U.S. recorded 360,800 ER visits related to e-bikes, e-scooters and hoverboards, known collectively as micromobility vehicles. Of those visits, 169,300 were linked to the scooters, or 47%. By comparison, ER trips stemming from e-bike accidents added up to 53,200, or less than 15%. Just as concerning, of the 233 micromobility-related deaths the CPSC registered through that six-year stretch, nearly half (111) were from e-scooter incidents, usually as a result of collisions with cars and/or control issues. Scooters mistakenly seen as 'very low risk' After a dip in the early part of the COVID pandemic, the ER-worthy injuries related to powered scooters – mostly the electric variety – have steadily risen from just under 30,000 in 2020 to 118,485 last year, nearly twice the 2023 total (64,329). 'People view scooters as very, very low risk for some reason, but we do see broken wrists, head injuries, neck injuries, cervical injuries. Those are all very common," said Dr. Eric Cioe-Peña, associate professor of emergency medicine and vice president of Northwell's Center for Global Health in Long Island, New York. Cioe-Peña has noticed the surge in injuries over the last five years, coinciding with the rise in e-scooter ridership. According to data from the National Association of City Transportation Officials, dockless scooter ridership in the U.S. was up to 65 million in 2023, the latest year for which the nonprofit has statistics. As of 2024, there were 130 American cities with e-scooter-sharing programs, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says. And a recent report projects the North American market for e-bikes and e-scooters to grow from about $500 million last year to more than $3 billion by 2033. Ignoring traffic rules and neglecting protection All those rides will inevitably lead to more injuries, and Cioe-Peña expressed concern about the number or riders who ignore the rules of the road – such as blowing past stop signs – and neglect to wear protective equipment, especially helmets. He said the worst e-scooter injuries he has seen at the ER involved a helmetless rider in Staten Island whose vehicle's front wheel hit an irregular spot on the street – possibly a storm drain slot – and was catapulted over the handlebar. The rider landed on concrete, sustaining a severe concussion and ankle and wrist fractures. 'The pedestrian risk is more sensational," Cioe-Peña said, 'but the real burden of disease is head injuries with unhelmeted riders." Studies of helmet use among e-scooter riders are scarce but generally show low percentages, as little as 2%. Alex Engel, a spokesperson for NACTO, said most of e-scooter injuries are sustained by riders, who are vulnerable to potholes or small objects on the road causing accidents. 'With e-scooters the center of gravity is much higher because you're standing on them, and because the wheels are much smaller and there's in general much less shock (absorption), pavement quality tends to matter a lot more than it does for bikes or e-bikes," Engel said. A need for more safe places to ride Still, he pointed out cars are by far the biggest danger to riders, which makes the significant increase in bike lanes across many cities a welcome development for micromobility fans. 'The most important thing any city can do is providing safe places for people to ride," Engel said. 'That provides space for those who are already riding, and it encourages more ridership. There's safety in numbers.'' Few if any cities have bike lanes on every street, and it's not uncommon to see e-scooters on sidewalks, which is generally against the law. Though civic leaders tend to appreciate the e-scooters' eco-friendly convenience, a few cities and two states – Pennsylvania and Delaware – have effectively banned them from public roads. There's wide variation in state and municipal regulations regarding e-scooters, from minimum age requirements to whether riding on sidewalks is allowed, leading to confusion among practitioners. While more than 30 states have set speed limits of between 15 mph and 20 mph, another six permit riders to go at least as fast as 25 mph, according to a detailed guide on the webpage of scooter maker Unagi. Lax enforcement of regulations The regulations are not commonly known and rarely enforced, said Joseph Schofer, a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University who specializes in transportation issues. 'A teenager riding a scooter, my sense is they have no obligation to get training," Schofer said. 'And if there is, there's no way to enforce it." He remembers a few years ago seeing a man on a rental e-scooter riding around Washington, D.C., with his child, maybe 2 or 3 years old, on his shoulders. It was a reminder of the need for better public education regarding these contraptions, not to mention common sense. Schofer said he sees the value in efficient conveyances like e-scooters, which can make it easier to navigate city streets. He also wonders about the risk involved, especially for young riders and tourists who may not be familiar with a town's layout and traffic patterns. 'You have a really cheap avenue to getting access to motorized transportation, and to young people who aren't licensed drivers, and to people of limited income, it's very appealing," he said. 'So how do you make this work?" 'A place in the transportation ecosystem' Dr. Ben Breyer, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, said that's where city involvement comes in. Breyer spent 10 years at San Francisco's leading trauma center and conducted several studies on bicycle trauma. More recently, he collaborated in a widely cited UCSF study published last summer that found nationwide e-bike injuries nearly doubled and e-scooter injuries rose by more than 45% every year from 2017-2022. Despite that, Breyer's likes the potential for these vehicles. 'These kind of micromobility options do have a place in the transportation ecosystem," he said. 'They help keep cars off the road, they help decrease congestion, they help people make that final mile in their commute. I think we need more infrastructure to help support riders, and there may need to be some regulations on maximum speeds and these kind of things to help ensure folks ride safely." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are electric scooters safe? Injuries, deaths raise concerns.
