Is Poor Sleep Destroying Your Teeth?

In case you haven’t heard, Sleep Medicine has become the new medical frontier with none
other than Captain Kirk himself promoting sleep enhancing devices. And with good reason.
Getting less than 7-9 hours of quality sleep is well documented to lead to cardiovascular
disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, mood swings, and decreased mental acuity – including
attention deficit, memory loss, and decreased executive functionality (decision making
efficiency). In fact, after only 18 hours without sleep your reaction time will be the equivalent
of having a blood alcohol level of 0.05, and after 24 hours you will be acting as if you had a 0.10
BAC!

And from a dental perspective, this can affect you in a couple of ways. First of all, the associated
inflammation that leads to the systemic diseases I just mentioned also leaves you vulnerable to
periodontal (gum) disease. Which you may recall remains the number one cause of tooth loss.
In addition, poor sleep is also often associated with tooth clenching and grinding which in turn
ends up causing tooth wear, breakage, and/or loosening, not to mention jaw joint and headache
issues. This is why aware dentists often get quite involved with sleep issues.

I’m not going to get bogged down with the physiology or biochemistry of sleep deprivation
which can get quite mind numbing if you’re not into those things, other than to mention the
cardinal signs of sleep deprivation which can be summed up with the acronym stopBANG which
stands for –

Snoring – Do you snore loudly (loud enough to be heard through closed doors or your
bed partner elbows you to stop)?

Tired – Do you often feel tired, sleepy, or fatigued during the daytime (including falling
asleep while driving or talking to someone)?

Observed – Has anyone observed you stop breathing or choking/gasping during your
sleep?

Pressure – Do you have or are being treated for high blood pressure?

Body Mass Index – Are you overweight?

Age – Are you older than 50?

Neck – Is your neck size large? (Male ≥ 17 in./ Female ≥ 16 in.)

Gender – Are you male?

 

If you answer yes to 4 or more of these questions, there is a high likely hood that you have a
sleep issue which should be checked out. If this includes you, be sure and let us know; we have
a very simple and inexpensive at home monitor that can help sort out whether or not you have
a problem that needs to be addressed.

Healthy Sleep Lifestyle

Most sleep issues in one way or another are related to our modern lifestyle. It would take a
whole book to completely cover the subject, but here is a short list of some of the more
common things one can do to help get back on track and restore healthy sleep patterns. Three
big ones are 1) establish and maintain a regular routine – go to bed and get up at the same time
every day, even on the weekend, 2) no eating or snacking within three hours of bedtime (no
alcohol or caffeine within 6 hrs.), and 3) no electronic screens (TV, phone, computer…) within 1
hour.

Professional Help

If those tweaks don’t solve your sleep issues, or if you have a stopBANG score over 3, you
should probably consider getting some professional advice. There is now a whole medical
specialty devoted to sleep medicine that can hook you up with tons of wires and someone to
watch you all night for an in-depth analysis. But for most situations, the simple monitor I
mentioned above should be all you need for us to be able to recommend some very effective all
natural solutions. Whatever you do though, do not ignore it – your life, and the life of your
teeth, may depend on it!

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