March 8, 2009
The daily grind
Is there a connection between the rise in the number of cases of people grinding their teeth and the economic downturn?
By Cheryl Tan
The last straw came in February last year, when Mr Chow Mun Zing broke a tooth eating a piece of soft bread.
He now wears a mouthguard, which prevents injuries from teeth grinding, to sleep.
The 42-year-old technical manager suffers from a bad case of teeth grinding in his sleep, which weakens and cracks his pearly whites.
In the last five years, he has had to repair six cracked teeth.
'I decided to do something about it because my dentist warned me that if I didn't, my teeth might weaken and I would lose them,' he says.
Teeth grinding - an action similar to the way we chew food - happens mostly at night and often goes unnoticed until a dentist diagnoses the problem, or when the people around sufferers lose sleep over the sound of gnashing teeth, which is similar to the low-level noise of metal filing.
Dental surgeon Dr William Chong, chief executive officer of Pacific Healthcare Holdings, says sufferers are able to 'consciously avoid the habit when they are awake', but during sleep they do not have the same control and 'grind their teeth without knowing it'.
Mr Chow was told about his noisy nocturnal habit when a routine visit to his dentist two years ago confirmed it. But he chose to ignore it.
Before that, he thought that his cracked teeth were part of the normal wear and tear of teeth.
The telltale sign was the excessively worn-down enamel of his teeth.
Dr Kenny Pang, Pacific Sleep Centre's ENT consultant and sleep specialist, says teeth grinding is a sleep disorder which affects the quality of sleep.
This means people do not get enough rest and their concentration during the day can be affected.
According to Mr Chow's dentist, Dr Chua Chee Haow of Atria-Pan Dental Group, teeth grinding is a genetic problem, although stress, anxiety and anger might worsen the condition.
Three of the four dentists whom LifeStyle spoke to say they have seen an increase in the number of teeth-grinding patients in the past year, which coincides with the economic downturn.
According to Dr Ansgar Cheng, Specialist Dental Group's consultant prosthodontist, 5 to 20 per cent of the adult population grind their teeth and about 80 per cent who suffer from the condition are not aware of it.
Dr Cheng also says his clinic has seen a 5 to 10 per cent jump in the number of grinders in the past year.
On average, he sees 10 to 15 patients a month suffering from the problem.
Although he cautions against establishing a 'cause-effect relationship' between the state of the economy and the habit, he says high stress levels during this time could be a factor.
Singapore Dental Association vice-president, Dr Raymond Ang, also reveals that several dentists in his Q & M Dental group have reported an increase in the number of patients complaining about the symptoms of grinding.
Likewise, Pacific Healthcare Holdings' Dr Chong has seen 15 per cent more patients experiencing teeth-grinding problems.
These include excessive wear and tear of teeth, cracked teeth and pain in the neck and facial regions.
In the case of retiree Dorothy Lau, her unconscious chewing at night not only weakened the joints of her jaw but also affected the left side of her cheek, which was often raw. On some occasions, it even led to bleeding.
'I didn't know my condition had become so bad,' says the 76-year-old retiree who, on hindsight, suspects she has been grinding her teeth for most of her life after her dentist, Dr Cheng, confirmed it two years ago. Like Mr Chow, she now wears a mouthguard to sleep every night.
Apart from using mouthguards to cushion the impact of teeth grinding, dentists say injecting Botox to paralyse jaw muscles helps to alleviate the condition in severe cases.
But there is no cure for it. 'You can't stop a person from grinding his teeth. It is the body's way of relieving stress,' says Dr Chua of Atria-Pan Dental Group.
'I decided to do something about it because my dentist warned me that if I didn't, my teeth might weaken and I would lose them.'
MR CHOW MUN ZING, who grinds his teeth while sleeping
'You can't stop a person from grinding his teeth. It is the body's way of relieving stress.'
DR CHUA CHEE HAOW, Atria-Pan Dental Group
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