Taking care of our teeth is no one’s responsibility but our own. If we are struggling with a mental illness, that can mean that we are not taking care of our physical health including our teeth. By not taking care of your mental health, your teeth will suffer the consequences.
Depression Affects Oral Health
Depression causes you to lack energy and feel hopeless which can interfere in daily hygiene activities. Having an overall depressed mental state can affect the health of your teeth since people with depression do not care about taking care of themselves. This can lead to negative consequences from developing cavities to losing your teeth. The same can work the other way around too, having bad teeth can ruin your self-esteem when you get weird looks or people have trouble looking at you because of the state of your teeth.
Dental Phobia
Dental phobia is when people with anxiety are afraid to go to the dentist. It could be because of previous painful procedures that they have had in the past the last time they went to the dentist. It also leads to being outspoken or harsh with your dentist when they have not had a bad attitude towards you. Because of this intense fear, people with anxiety do not go to the dentist very frequently which means that they are not getting their yearly cleaning or have problems with their teeth that are not being treated.
Treatment
It is important to realize what it means to have good oral health and to be aware of any problems that you have going on with your teeth. This means that just like taking medication or going to therapy for your mental illness, you need to make taking care of your teeth should be part of your routine. You can do this by brushing your teeth once when you wake up in the morning and another time before you go to bed. You should also limit the number of sugary foods and drinks as they can ruin your teeth in the long run and make your anxiety worse. You also need to make sure that you visit the dentist on a regular basis like once a year for your yearly cleaning as well as to return if your teeth run into any issues. By taking care of your mental health, your teeth will also be taken care of.
Located in Georgetown, Texas, Alma Loma is a transformative living center to help those struggling in early recovery to transition out of our Psychiatric and Substance Abuse residential center. Alma Loma believes that addiction is born from an untreated mental illness in which our facility is willing to help you. Our facility offers residency, medication management education, individualized treatment, life skills education, 12-Step support, and more tools to bring patients the confidence to be able to live an independent life. For more information, please call us at 866-457-3843.
