How teeth may be the cause of your insomnia

How Teeth May Be The Cause Of Your Insomnia?

It's a common assumption among patients that stress, anxiety, routine changes, or other factors causing discomfort only disrupt their quality of sleep. However, recent studies have highlighted an interlink between sleep disorders such as insomnia and oral health, the poor quality of each affecting the other and vice versa. Patients experiencing poor dental health and certain tooth issues will likely face issues in their sleep quality. On the other hand, patients with healthy teeth are less prone to insomnia and many other sleeping disorders. How teeth may be the cause of your insomnia? Then read the description offered below to get your answer. In this guide, we will cover how dental health causes insomnia as a common and chronic sleep disorder and its relation to periodontal problems.

Before moving to the impact of dental health on sleep quality, let's explore how low sleep quality causes dental health problems.

Insomnia: The Cause Or Effect? Symptoms And Causes Of The Condition

The existing literature defines Insomnia as one of the “sleeping disorders” or a condition of sleep deprivation. The condition induces difficulty in patients falling asleep or having trouble staying asleep. Depending on the nature and extent, some people find it a minor inconvenience, while others deem insomnia a major disruption.
As far as the relationship between oral health and sleep problems is concerned, they are interconnected because sleep disorders such as insomnia affect an individual’s systemic health, mouth structures, and gums and jaw. In contrast, poor oral health affects the individual's ability to attain quality sleep. Hence, certain sleep disorders, including “insomnia,” can cause oral issues or become the effect of certain dental health issues.

The common symptoms are:

  • Trouble falling asleep
  • Make insomniac patients awake amidst the night and fall back asleep
  • Patients wake up too early in the morning and don’t fall back asleep
  • Trying feelings or feelings of sleepiness in the daytime
  • Slow responses and reactions while driving
  • Trouble remembering things and confusion in concentration
  • Anxiety, depression, and irritability
  • Disruptions in routine work, social activities, or hobbies

Some of the causes are:

The exact causes aren’t yet fully understood, but the experts have pointed toward some supposed factors, including:

  • A person’s family history (genetics)
  • Varying brain activities among individuals
  • A person’s physical health
  • Mental conditions, including anxiety or depression
  • New work schedules, adjustments, and life changes
  • Inconsistent sleep habits and routine

What Is Sleep Quality, And How Does A Lack Of Sleep Affect Oral Health?

Sleep quality O, R the quality of sleep as the word indicates R, refers to the performance. An individual’s ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, or enter into many retreating sleep cycles to fulfill a complete sleep duration.
Quality sleep is one of the fundamental necessities of the human body to perform well and to recover and regulate core biological functions. In contrast, a person lacking a quality amount of sleep paves the way to various oral, systemic, and mental health problems. Experts in the field state that sleep quality is an essential element of oral health and systemic health. According to research, individuals with certain sleep disorders reported dental pain, periodontal issues, and feelings of embarrassment about their oral health.
Hence, administering sleep quality in patients and determining the appropriate referrals for future sleep quality evaluation has become an essential part of professionals’ oral health assessment. For example, the sleep quality and quantity of patients can be examined through their initial general appearance, physical ability, and attitude. Moreover, identifying a patient's behavioral manifestations, including impatience, irritability, yawning, slow body movements, falling asleep during appointments, or lack of interest and focus in conversation, as the indicators of chronic sleep quality issues causing influence in facial feature appearance, formation of oral structures and the development of oral diseases.
Other effects of poor sleep or lack of sleep affect teeth are:

  • Increased risk of dental issues
  • Gum disease, bad breath, dry mouth because of dehydration
  • Inflammation in gums, resulting in plaque or tooth decay
  • Weak immune system, declining the body’s ability to fight off oral infections
  • Sleep deprivation can cause bruxism (teeth grinding or clenching)

How Can Teeth Affect Your Sleep Quality?

This is a serious concern among people. Can dental issues cause insomnia? The quick answer to the question is “yes.” Below, we will discuss some of the critical dental conditions that cause insomnia.

Insomnia And Oral Health - Dental Problems That Cause Insomnia

Toothache And Inflammation Or Bad Teeth

A toothache is undoubtedly an enemy of the patient’s restful sleep. All types of extreme pain, including toothache, severely activate your nervous system and keep you awake by stimulating your brain. One of the studies reports that managers who slept for 6 hours or fewer had a 1.23-fold increased chance of developing a toothache.
On the other hand, the term “periodontitis” describes an inflammatory condition and infection of the tooth’s surrounding tissues, particularly the “gingiva” or bad teeth that make you sleepy or lead to fatigue during the daytime. Because Periodontitis may result in severe pain and tooth loss, which disturbs sleep and is strongly related to poor sleep quality. Moreover, the research concluded that teenagers who slept for less than 5 hours were found to have a 2.28 times greater prevalence of periodontal disease.

Disordered Breathing And Oral Discomfort

Many factors causing your patient's poor oral health, such as gum disease, dental cavities, and malocclusion (misaligned teeth), block the airway and create sleep-disordered breathing. Patients with these conditions feel partial or complete blockage of the airway during sleep, causing them to disrupt sleeping patterns.
Certain dental issues, such as oral infections, oral lesions, or toothaches, cause discomfort during sleep. Such acute pains related to oral health issues cause difficulty for patients to fall asleep or maintain restful sleeping cycles.

Teeth Grinding Or Clenching (Sleep Bruxism)

Bruxism is a repetitive sleep-related movement condition marked by unconscious teeth grinding and jaw clenching while sleeping or awake. It is widely reported in pediatrics, with a frequency of up to 40% during childhood and other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and restless legs syndrome. According to recent findings, snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome are found in 35% and 16,7% of people who grind their teeth, respectively. A confirmation to those wandering for can bruxism cause insomnia. A restful night’s sleep might be readily disturbed by these concerns.

Side Effects Of Bruxism: The Causes Of Interrupted Sleep

Headache and Earache - It can cause headaches or other pain, leading to disrupted sleeping patterns.
Stress - It can be an indicator of stress, which is a common factor causing insomnia.
Tooth Loss - It may lead to tooth loss, which can directly cause insomnia.

Dry Mouth

A dry mouth will result from breathing via your mouth at night, mainly if your nose is congested. Between 5.5% and 46% of the population suffers from xerostomia. People start breathing through their mouths when there is a decline in airflow because of sleep apnea. This would automatically negatively affect saliva production. Lack of saliva causes oral tissues to contract and dry up, causing oral hygiene problems such as risk of dental decay, cavities, and pain that interfere with peaceful sleep.

Tooth Loss

According to the study, a lack of teeth can cause insomnia and poor sleep since the tongue can’t sit comfortably in the mouth when teeth are lacking. The absence of teeth can exacerbate obstructive sleep apnea by interfering with the tongue’s tendency to relax. One research shows that high-risk obstructive sleep apnea increases by 2% for every extra tooth loss in adults. Sleeping at night might be incredibly challenging unless you get fixed by a dentist as it is a common factor that bad teeth cause insomnia.

Wisdom Teeth Cause Insomnia

Wisdom teeth or extra teeth when emerged fully or even partially cause a great deal of pain, causing you to awake often at night. Moreover, these additions in the teeth location also cause certain gum diseases and cavities.

Choose MedsDental Billing Company For The Billing Services Of Your Dental Practice

Outsource your practice to MedsDental Billing Company, which can provide precise billing for your dental office. Our experts are familiar with the processes involved in legally billing for sleep apnea dental equipment and other dental treatment services. We submit precise claims with the proper coding and attachments to receive swift reimbursement. Our organization has incorporated dependable technology to carry out each step quickly and efficiently; hence, no step will be delayed. Now, you can focus on improving the sleep quality of your patients by providing the best dental treatment while we handle your financing section to improve your reimbursement. To secure your patients’ data, we also offer HIPAA-compliant billing services. For our partners’ financial benefit, we consider it essential to provide them with high-quality services. So why worry about billing when MedsDental is prepared to handle this task? Immediately collaborate and see miracles.

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