Pandemic causing stress-related tooth problems, local dentists say

Dr. Michael Clark, a Pine Bluff dentist, says stress from covid is causing more dental problems. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)
Dr. Michael Clark, a Pine Bluff dentist, says stress from covid is causing more dental problems. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)

If patients had simply missed their dental appointments and were overdue for a checkup, the end result might be more typical, but stress now seems to be the culprit that is causing the most serious tooth problems.

That is how three Pine Bluff dentists describe what they are seeing in patients who are slowly coming back to see them.

Dr. Michael Clark, who has been in practice in Pine Bluff for more than 30 years, said he was seeing about a 50% increase in patients who are grinding their teeth. That grinding, called bruxism, has led to broken and cracked teeth.

"The damage to teeth is a direct result of that grinding," he said. "So it's big."

The problems Clark is seeing are similar to national findings of covid-related dental issues.

A report released in the fall from the American Dental Association said that dentists who were surveyed nationwide "have seen a rise in stress-related oral health conditions in their patients since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."

More than half of the dentists that responded to the survey had seen almost a 60% increase in bruxism, a 53% increase in chipped and cracked teeth, and a 53% increase in temporomandibular disorder symptoms, commonly referred to as TMJ. The survey also found a 26% increase in cavities and an almost 30% increase in periodontal disease.

"We're seeing much more serious cases of broken teeth and TMJ dysfunction as a result of that grinding," Clark said, adding that the grinding can be linked to stress brought on by a variety of covid-related conditions and circumstances people find themselves in.

Clark said he too found himself as stressed out as many of his patients.

"About two months ago I woke up grinding my teeth so hard I thought I had broken my front teeth," he said. "I made myself a night guard and have been wearing it ever since."

That occurrence, he said, was the direct result of stress.

"You can't escape it," he said. "It will affect some part of your body, and grinding is one way of relieving stress."

Clark said his wife finally came to his rescue, whisking him away to the first vacation he said he'd had in 18 months

Dr. Tad Beene, another Pine Bluff dentist, said that when all dentists' offices were closed during the early part of the pandemic, necessary dental work got postponed.

Dentists still saw patients on an emergency basis, but the deciding factor was pain, he said. If someone had cracked a tooth but was not in discomfort, he couldn't treat the person's problem.

"So there was a lot of stuff that got pushed off," said Beene, who has been out of dental school for 10 years.

The end result, he said, is that a problem that might have been addressed six months ago has now worsened. A tooth with a small cavity that could have been filled earlier now needs more extensive work.

"Now it's a crown or a root canal," Beene said.

Both Clark and Beene said patients were trickling back.

"It's been kinda a roller coaster," Beene said. "One day we are full, and the next day, there might be five messages from patients canceling their appointments because they were exposed to covid or thought they might have been. We are super respectful of patients and their situations. We screen them pretty heavily, and we really appreciate our patients being respectful and not coming in when they think it might not be safe."

As for whether all of their previous patients will eventually return, Clark said he somewhat doubted it. Even though his office has been back open for months since it was forced to shut down in March and April, about 1 in 5 patients have yet to make a return appointment.

"I just don't know if we will ever get back to the same patient load we had," Clark said. "Unfortunately, I don't see that the current conditions we are working under now changing anytime soon."

Those conditions include heavily screening patients before they come in and not being able to see many patients in a day because of the necessity of having to sanitize each room after it is used and then having to allow it to "rest" for 15 minutes after the cleaning is completed.

Beene said he has yet to see some of his previous patients as well, but said "sadly, it's going to catch up with them,"and when that happens and they are in pain, they will be forced to get help.

Clark and Beene both said the federal Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, was extremely beneficial to many dental offices that might have otherwise had to close if not for the assistance.

"There were a lot of offices that might have really had an issue," Beene said. "The buildings they are in, the practice, those bills don't stop coming in."

Clark expressed worry for the younger professionals who are not long out of dental school and who have clinics they are trying to get established.

"They come out and many have between $350,000 and $400,000 in student loans, and then to buy a practice may cost between $1 million to $1.5 million," Clark said. "They're down at the bank trying to plead their case."

To a great degree, Clark could have been describing Dr. Philip Davis, another Pine Bluff dentist who has been in practice since January 2019.

Davis said he, too, was seeing patients who because of stress had developed more severe dental and TMJ problems, but he said the covid-era had been particularly difficult on him and his wife, who is also a dentist, from a business standpoint.

"I didn't know what to do," he said, referring to the time when his practice had to close for 10 weeks.

Asked by others why he was worrying, he said, "You've got to look at this from my perspective: I just came straight out of school and jumped head first into buying a practice. It was a big step. And we've got student loans, a mortgage, the building, the practice and about 10 people that are relying on me to put food on their table. It was like getting the wind knocked out of you when we had to shut down."

Davis said that for the first week of the closure, he considered it a bit of a vacation. But he said he soon realized that with so many other facets of life closed down, he was not alone.

"I thought, this is all going to work out," he said. "Sometimes you just have to go with the flow."

Davis said if he had been practicing for 20 years, he might have considered closing his doors.

"But this young and right out of school," he said, "I can't afford to do that."

Upcoming Events