How Does Fibromyalgia Affect Your Teeth? What To Know?

Does fibromyalgia affect your teeth? Fibromyalgia is a threat to your oral health and can make your life challenging in enduring the pain. To understand how this condition can affect your teeth, then you need to know the symptoms and other ailments it is accompanied by. For example, teeth grinding and jaw clenching can occur in people with fibromyalgia. And it can intensify the pain you are encountering. Your dentist can help you with bruxism to lessen the symptoms and prevent experiencing chronic dental pain.

The dentist is skilled in treating dental problems in patients with fibromyalgia.

Does fibromyalgia affect your teeth? Fibromyalgia is a threat to your oral health and can make your life challenging in enduring the pain. To understand how this condition can affect your teeth, then you need to know the symptoms and other ailments it is accompanied by. For example, teeth grinding and jaw clenching can occur in people with fibromyalgia. And it can intensify the pain you are encountering. Your dentist can help you with bruxism to lessen the symptoms and prevent experiencing chronic dental pain.

What is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is a condition characterized by extensive musculoskeletal pain with fatigue, memory, mood, and sleep problems. It is also believed that fibromyalgia intensifies painful sensations by influencing how your brain and spinal cord interprets painful and nonpainful signs.

The patient asks a question, does fibromyalgia affect your teeth?

Symptoms frequently start after an event, for example, physical injury, infection, surgery, or significant psychological pressure. In different cases, side effects continuously accumulate over time with no single triggering factor.

Furthermore, many fibromyalgia patients have tension headaches, TMJ disorder, irritable bowel problems, depression, and anxiety. Furthermore, women are bound to have fibromyalgia than are men.

Even though there is no solution for fibromyalgia, different medications can help manage the symptoms.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms?

If you want to know how does fibromyalgia affects your teeth, then let us understand its symptoms and other conditions that go with it.

Most fibromyalgia patients have chronic pain symptoms. These include muscle ache and jaw pain. In any case, the primary indications of fibromyalgia include:

Widespread pain:  People with fibromyalgia can experience chronic pain often described as a constant dull ache. The pain can last for at least three months, and it should be happened on both sides of your body and above and underneath your waist to consider it a widespread pain.

Fatigue: Fibromyalgia patients frequently get up tired, although they sleep for long periods. Rest is usually disturbed by muscle ache, jaw pain, and other related pain symptoms. Also, several fibromyalgia patients have other sleep problems like sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.

Cognitive issues: A side effect regularly referred to as “fibro fog” weakens the ability to concentrate, pay attention and focus on mental activities.

Furthermore, fibromyalgia regularly exists together with other issues, for example:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Migraine and other forms of headaches
  • Chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Temporomandibular joint disorders
  • Postural tachycardia syndrome
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Lastly, interstitial cystitis or painful bladder syndrome

These symptoms and some conditions are the triggering factors to help you answer the question, does fibromyalgia affect your teeth. Also, knowing what causes it can help you understand your situation.

What Causes Fibromyalgia?

The specific reason for fibromyalgia is unclear. Nonetheless, it is suggested that fibromyalgia is an issue with central pain processing in the brain, where there might be an expanded affectability or perception of pain to a given factor.

There is a scope of likely danger factors, including:

  • repetitive injuries
  • central nervous system (CNS) issues
  • rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases, for example, lupus
  • a distressing, awful physical or emotional incident, for example, a car accident
  • the way your genes manage how you process painful stimuli

Moreover, fibromyalgia can be inherited. For example, females who have a family member with fibromyalgia have a greater danger of developing the condition.

Individuals with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or spinal arthritis, called ankylosing spondylitis, have a higher risk of creating fibromyalgia than patients with other rheumatic illnesses.

Does Fibromyalgia Affect Your Teeth? 

Absolutely, yes. Though the fibromyalgia itself does not damage the teeth directly, the medication you need and the other conditions accompanied by it can. Living with fibromyalgia also makes trouble at the dentist for different reasons. These include:

  • Experiencing difficulty opening your mouth for an extended period since your jaw muscles may get tired quickly, resulting in a muscle ache and jaw pain.
  • Also, the fibromyalgia pain in other joints can make it difficult to sit comfortably in the dentist’s chair for any period.
  • Since fibromyalgia patients encounter chronic pain, dental anxiety can be elevated for fear of aggravating their condition. Also, symptoms of fibromyalgia may even make regular dental cleaning practice painful and unpleasant.

Generally, individuals with fibromyalgia frequently experience chronic pain from the head and neck muscles. Also, dental issues like grinding the teeth and cavities can intensify these fibromyalgia manifestations.

Another consideration is that fibromyalgia pain can be mistaken for tooth pain. That is why fibromyalgia patients must get dental checkups regularly to ensure it is genuinely fibromyalgia pain. And the pain is not an underlying dental issue that should be addressed before it gets worse.

Despite dental fears, it is significant that you visit a dentist consistently. The more you abandon visiting a dentist, the more alarming the appointment will appear. Likewise, should a dental issue develop, you may get hesitant or even embarrassed to get the procedure you need.

In any case, keep in mind that regular dental checkups and oral cancer screenings can be life-saving for anybody, incorporating individuals with fibromyalgia.

What To Do to Lessen Dental Fears?

Luckily, many methods can help people with fibromyalgia manage their dental anxiety. But the initial step is to have a dentist who understands that fibromyalgia can intensify pain, even from regular dental care like getting x-rays or hygiene appointments. Also, look for a dentist who performs proper precautions.

To make your dental appointment better, you can ask the dentist about the following tactics:

The woman visits a dentist because of tooth pain.
  • Oral medication to reduce your level of anxiety
  • Intravenous medications that adjust consciousness
  • Complete sedation
  • Comforts cause you to feel more relaxed in the chair, for example, a blanket, a massage pad, or soothing music.

Moreover, complete sedation diminishes all tension and might be the most ideal alternative even with extreme dental fear.

In any case, not all dentists are trained to do sedation. However, you can carefully check their credentials to select the right one for you.

Managing Fibromyalgia Pain After a Dental Treatment 

People with fibromyalgia can make a dental visit stressful, both physically and emotionally. The simple dental visit may also bring extreme muscle ache, jaw pain, and other distress brought about by the procedure itself. A dentist skilled in treating individuals living with fibromyalgia will perceive that your pain can be challenging compared to other patients. Get some information about methods that may help regulate expanded pain or otherwise, after treatment too. For example, relaxation techniques or deep-breathing methods may help post-dentist fibromyalgia flare.

Keep in mind that the mouth is the doorway to a healthy lifestyle. Also, prevention is the best strategy for dental care. Regular oral hygiene visits and thorough oral examinations are necessary to preserve the smile of everyone, including people with fibromyalgia.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *