In Israel, bruxism, i.e. the grinding of the teeth, and excessive clenching of the jaw, two physical symptoms linked to stress and anxiety, have seen their prevalence increase in the population during the first containment.
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- The anxiety of confinement, the global pandemic and the economic difficulties to come is felt at the level of the general population, which clenches its jaws much more and grinds its teeth more.
- This phenomenon particularly affects women and people between the ages of 35 and 55.
It is one of the physical manifestations of our stress or anxiety. Researchers from Tel Aviv University (Israel) wondered about the physical manifestations caused by confinement. And ikls have found that cases of bruxism, i.e. grinding teeth, and excessive clenching of the jaw, have skyrocketed. The results of their study have been published The Journal of Clinical Medicine on October 12, 2020.
Orofacial pain, such as excessive jaw clenching during the day and bruxism at night, are symptoms that can be caused by stress and anxiety. The global pandemic, the spread of the disease, confinement with loved ones at home and the looming economic difficulties are all themes that generate daily anxiety and the risk of orofacial pain.
A hard-to-swallow confinement
To find out, the researchers asked the Jewish population residing in Israel and Poland to complete an online questionnaire. Of the 1,792 people who agreed to participate in this study, the proportion of those suffering from jaw pain or teeth damaged by grinding increased sharply with confinement.
Thus, in a few months, the prevalence of these symptoms went from 35% before the pandemic to 47%. In detail, clenching of the jaws went from 17 to 32% and cases of bruxism from 10 to 36%. In people who suffered from these symptoms before the pandemic saw their severity increase by around 15%.
According to the results, women are twice as prone to orofacial pain (517) as men (209) and the phenomenon particularly affects 35-55 year olds, all sexes combined. “We believe our findings reflect the distress felt by the middle generation, who were cooped up at home with young children, without the usual help from grandparents, while worrying about their elderly parents, who faced financial problems. and often forced to work from home in difficult conditions”, point out the researchers in the study.
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