by Dr Rachel Hall B.Ch.D (Uni Leeds), LDSRCS(Eng), MACNEM, Dental Surgeon, Brisbane, Australia
“Stress is a reaction people have when excessive pressure or demands are placed upon them, and arises when an individual believes they are unable to cope.”
At one time or another, we’ve all dealt with the effects of chronic stress, from migraines and backaches to anxiety and depression. We all know that stress can impact the immune system – how often do we happen to get sick or catch a cold when we are stressed or run down? But what is not commonly understood is that stress and our response to it can also impact on the mouth, teeth, jaws and gums as well as our overall emotional and physical wellbeing. It is not possible to point to a particular dental problem and say it’s caused entirely by stress but like the rest of the body, the mouth can be affected.
Now, not everyone is swinging from one major life crisis to another yet the prevalence of people stating they are stressed or are affected by stress related disorders and problems is enormous across all ages and social backgrounds. Why is this? What is going on in our lives that stress is so widespread and common? Could it be that modern life, our hectic lifestyles and how we see, deal with and perceive life, impacts on our level of stress and our ability to cope with it or not?
“Any idiot can face a crisis, it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” (Anton Chekov)
The majority of causes of stress that we face on a day-to-day basis are not as extreme as major life events. The day-to-day causes of stress such as those daily, minor irritations like misplacing our car keys, traffic jams, minor arguments with family/colleagues, etc could be regarded as daily hassles. Research by Lazarus and Folkman (1984), at the University of California, indicated that it was the daily hassles rather than the major life events that affected us the most. Life events do not occur every day, but daily hassles do and it’s this constant daily frustration due to minor issues that cause us the most stress, because they occur so regularly and can therefore undermine our health. Think of some of the things that get under your skin on a regular basis – things like waiting in line, time pressures, lack of sleep, noise, your job, money, your kids, relationships, getting meals ready, being stuck in traffic, shopping and so on, in fact the things that simply make up life. Then consider – how do you react to them?
We tend to think that stress is solely caused by external events, situations and people, yet this is not strictly correct. Research has found that the Transactional Model of Stress is more accurate. This model says that stress is caused by an interaction between the stressor, our view of the stressor and our perceived ability to cope with it. It’s our own internal beliefs, attitudes, expectations, interpretations, perceptions and other factors such as our personality, levels of self esteem and need for control or perfectionism, in combination with the external events that tend to create stress.
Too much stress may not only spoil your mood, it can also spoil your health and your smile. There is mounting evidence that there is a strong link between stress and gum disease and dental health. It is proposed that elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which impacts on immune health along with digestion and sugar regulation is a major player in stress induced illness. Oral health is determined by various factors including stress, which can play a major part in oral disease by leading to inappropriate lifestyle choices that can adversely affect oral health. For example, things like neglecting oral health habits along with an increase in unhealthy habits such as lack of exercise, poor diet, increased alcohol, sugar, caffeine and tobacco consumption and lack of sleep are all detrimental to oral health.
During times of stress cortisol is released and works to reduce inflammation in the body; however, when inflammation becomes chronic, the level of cortisol continues to soar, wreaking havoc on the body’s immune system and its ability to deal with infections. The body’s response to uncontrolled infection (like gum disease) can lead to many other problems such as increased susceptibility to colds and other illnesses, heart disease, high blood pressure, increased risk of cancer, tendency to develop food allergies, increased risk of gastrointestinal problems and increased risk of autoimmune disease.
As the cortisol level of the body increases the body produces acid, which alters the acidity level of the saliva. Increased acidity levels in the mouth create an environment for bacteria to proliferate and thrive making us more prone to infection, gum disease and dental decay. Also, stress can cause your body to flush out minerals like calcium from your body, minerals which are found in bones and teeth. This leaching of minerals combined with a more acidic and bacteria rich environment means stress makes us more susceptible to dental cavities and suppression of the immune system leads to an increased risk for developing or worsening gum problems along with more systemic conditions.
The potential impact from stress and anxiety on oral health is surprising and ranges from clenching or grinding of teeth (bruxism); facial pain, mouth sores including mouth ulcers and cold sores and poor oral hygiene, through to increased gum problems and dental decay.
Grinding or bruxism can be extremely damaging to the jaws and teeth, causing soreness when eating and difficulty chewing, chipped, worn or cracked teeth plus facial pain. Bruxism most commonly occurs at night, so it’s not something you can consciously control and grinding your teeth leads to disturbed or poor quality sleep and jaw pain on waking. It has been linked to work stress (Journal of Community Dentistry and Epidemiology) and personality type (Journal of Behavioural Medicine). The personality type study found that people who were shy, apprehensive and given to worry, tended towards bruxism, which can have devastating effects on teeth and may require extensive corrective treatment.
Managing stress is important to maintaining good oral health, and the Centre for Disease Control identified stress as one of the top risk factors for gum (periodontal) disease. In some instances, people may be so hindered by stress and anxiety and depression that they simply neglect oral hygiene. In a 2009 study in the Journal of Periodontology, 56 percent of test subjects reported that stress led them to disregard regular brushing and flossing. Other studies found that emotional factors played a significant role in the development of adult gum (periodontal) disease. Researchers also discovered that the severity of gum disease increased with amount of stress experienced and those at greatest risk for gum disease were those who were highly emotional in dealing with financial problems.
Stress can also cause mouth sores and ulcers, which are painful little swellings that appear inside the mouth. The exact cause of ulcers is not fully understood but stressful episodes can bring them out. Stress can lead to recurrent cold sores and make existing ones worse. According to a report in General Dentistry Journal, studies show that students have a high prevalence of mouth ulcers, yet the ulcers appear less frequently during breaks and after graduation, when stress levels are lower.
Regular visits to the dentist are the best way of pinpointing stress-related dental problems before they flare up.
However, what about the more wide ranging implications of stress on our health and daily interactions? The most effective approach would be to address the root of the problem and remove the source of the stress. But most of our stresses happen in daily life and unless we all start living like hermits, it would be impossible to remove all sources of stress completely.
Consequently, the most sensible approach would be to make an internal shift that allows us to be more of who we are and less affected by that which is happening around us. But how do we do this? The conventional approach is to use relaxation techniques or meditation, breath techniques or even massage and physical therapy, which may help reduce your tension as part of a stress action plan. By simplifying our life, reducing our level of busy-ness and introducing self-care and good sleeping and eating habits, we could go a long way to truly healing our way of being and start letting go of beliefs, ideals, perceptions and expectations that can cause internal stress. However, what if the true answer lay deeper than this and that it meant addressing all the ways we are living? For example, what if it meant being able “to observe and not absorb” that which goes on around us, to not take things so personally, to give people the freedom to make their own choices in life?
The only thing we truly have control over in life is our own inner state of being. Serge Benhayon presents that one of the ways we can have command over our inner state is via the breath.
It has been known for thousands of years that breathing has a powerful influence over our physiological and psychological well-being. Some people may find it difficult to understand the link between the way we breathe and its effects on stress, as we have been breathing since the first moment we were born and take around 20,000 breaths a day, so we must have been breathing correctly from a physiological perspective as we are still alive. Yet research has shown that the way we breathe can have a powerful effect on how stressed we feel. When we suffer stress, one of the changes brought about by the fight/flight response is to speed up the amount of breaths we take switching from slow, abdominal breathing to faster, shallower and stressful chest breathing. This is vital and healthy in the short term however, if we are constantly triggering the fight/flight response we can begin to habitually breathe with our upper chest even though the stress may be over. This style of breathing sends signals to the brain that we are under stress when we may not even be.
The Gentle Breath Meditation as taught by Serge Benhayon teaches us to focus on our breath and how we are breathing so as to build awareness of how we are reacting to life and how we are feeling. The Gentle Breath can be utilised as a tool that can assist the body to become more harmonious and bring us back to our natural calm, relaxed state of being so that life’s influences do not impact so greatly upon us. The Gentle Breath Meditation may be one of the simplest yet effective starting points in taking true control of your life instead of being at the mercy of the outside world and all the pressures that it presents.
It’s important to be aware of your stress level not just as it relates to your smile but the mind and body as well. Take time out of your day to connect to yourself, breathe gently and de-stress.
Becoming aware how detrimental stress is to our overall health and wellbeing as well as oral health is a key step to becoming empowered to make beneficial changes in our dental care and our way of living and responding to life’s challenges in general. When we begin to realise that we can change, we can heal, and we can choose differently – we can choose a gentle breath, and a gentle caring way to be with ourselves, and others. I invite you to see and feel for yourself how the body will lovingly respond to such choices.
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
I am learning about the level of stress I have taken in my life through my teeth, but I am also learning to appreciate that I have some awesome foundations! Thank you my mouth for being a great communicator and my dentist for being able to bridge the conversation!
This is such a helpful consideration of stress, it makes it less one dimensional and shows how many things affect every moment of our life.
It is interesting and shocking to realise that in today’s world with all its advances and technology and affluence that stress is still so prevalent and influential on our lives.
The Gentle Breath Meditation is an excellent tool to reduce stress while in the dentist waiting room.
I was thinking about this very topic as I was sitting in a dentist’s chair yesterday. I have had to visit my dentist a number of times this year because my fillings came off, not because of tooth decay, but because I grind my teeth. And really, it’s not something I can control, but that does not have to mean there’s nothing I can do. Stress does not have a on/off switch, it encompasses how I live my day in its entirety. More gentleness, more tenderness, more space, more surrender – obviously my body is asking for.
We have to be honest with ourselves and see how we choose to invest in stress. Could the simplicity of life be way too much for us to comprehend let alone live? Life is simple – there is not one ounce of need for stress in our day yet the simplicity with which I know I can live can still feel ‘out there’ and yet as I let go of any struggle I can tap into simplicity in this very moment… the issues and dramas we create to have stress in our lives.
It’s the way we deal with all the little things in our day that actually shapes our life – and I agree the gentle breath meditation is revolutionary when it comes to supporting us to approach life differently.
It’s an amazing fact that we breathe approximately 20,000 times a day, this alone is something we could work on to change the quality of how we breathe to impact significantly not just on stress levels but quality of life and how connected to ourselves we feel.
20,000 breaths a day is 20,000 opportunities to breathe our own breath.
Yes it is but in order to be able to do this in a non judgemental way dentists and doctors need to be self-caring themselves and currently so many are not and are not supported to do this by the systems but there certainly needs to be a re-evaluation by all concerned as our current trajectory is towards ever greater levels of stress and ill-health under a bankrupt system.
This blog not only clearly spells out the detrimental effects stress has on our oral health as well as the rest of our body but also empowers us to take responsibility for the amount of stress in our lives and gives us the tools to turn this around. Truly a gift and one that is well worth embracing – thank you Rachel.
When we embrace the stress in our lives and see it for what it is we can change our ways/movements to support us. We are no longer run by those stressful, abusive movements but movements that support our evolution and well being.
I’ll second that Helen. From my own experience, this has proved to be true. The more I take care of myself, and bring that attention to the smaller details such as being committed and thorough with my dental care the more I benefit all round, and in turn so does everyone else. Including the dental staff!
Before I knew any different I too would never have associated stress with gum disease. But as you so clearly explain Rachel, there is no part of our physical body that is not affected by our mental/emotional health. Its no different to adding a toxic chemical to a flowing river in a sense, as the environment then has to adapt and change to cope with the unfamiliar stress that has been introduced.
“Stress is a reaction people have when excessive pressure or demands are placed upon them, and arises when an individual believes they are unable to cope” – this puts responsibility right back to us. And I agree – there does not have to be any major crisis for us to feel stressed, it’s the little things in life and how we react to them. And we cannot possibly eliminate every single possible cause of stress in order to be able to live stress-free in this world. We have tried every way possible to numb and distract ourselves, but nothing ever truly worked either.
Thankyou Rachel for such a comprehensive and informative account of how stress can have such an impact on every aspect of our body, including our dental health. There is much to consider.
I used to believe that my dental health was separate to the rest of my body but this article clearly lays down how the whole body is affected by stress and that we do not have to be at the mercy of our daily situations. I have also been practising the Gentle Breath Meditation as suggested in this article and it does make a difference to how I deal with the day to day stuff and my energy levels at the end of the day.
This is a fantastic exploration and expose on stress and effects on the mouth, teeth and gums as it considers our connection to our inner state of being as the one thing that we can control in life.
Sometimes when we do not do something for a while and come back to it our experience of it is different because we are different. I had not eaten sugar for some time and then had a couple of cookies that had maple syrup in them. I lived in Canada for a short spell and used to love maple syrup on my pancakes, in pies, with ice cream, in coffee even so the taste for me was amazing and reconnected me to ‘happy’ former times but the sensation in my mouth and in my body after eating them was also very strong. It felt like my gums were sizzling, like the sherbert I used to have as a child, my brain had gone ping, like a light had been put on and my body internally felt like it was being revved up with a chaotic energy. I share this because the sensation in my mouth was very strong and lasted for some time. The next morning I could still feel it and it had also made my teeth feel on edge. the next day was the same. If having a couple of cookies can have such a profound effect then I can understand how we are destroying ourselves by consuming sugar, albeit a supposed healthy sugar, the refined version and its substitutes being added to so many products nowadays.
Reacting to situations (as I did yesterday) indicates to me my reserves are low: instead of observing, I absorbed. Ouch! Not a good feeling in the body, but great to acknowledge how tired I am.
Yes I still get caught in this way when I am tired but it is great to have the awareness to be able to turn it around rather than let it fester and cause problems in our lives and bodies.
A timely article Rachel and one which supports me to understand why for the first time I have gingivitis. Without reading this, I would not have associated gum disease with stress levels. I can now see how certain additional responsibilities I’ve taken on are impacting on my body and as a consequence begin to make some adjustments and scale things down. Thank you.
Love the Chekov quote – always that focus on our day to day living and quality, not about being the superhero in the emergencies.
A wonderfully informative sharing Rachel! You bring much clarity to the Dental issues and questions we often ask.
“Any idiot can face a crisis, it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” I love this quote from Anton Chekov as I experience this right now, experiencing stress in my job on a daily basis has become too much the last days, the messages of my body are very clear I have to come back to observe and not absorb but also honouring what I truly feel and express, not trying to be perfect.
Well done! It is so easy to get sucked into thinking day-today stress is normal but it is not and every part of our body is communicating to us. Regular check ups at the dentist can help us understand our relationship with stress but we also need to give permission for dentists to communicate in this way.
A brilliant article Rachel, with so many people experiencing stress and anxiety on a daily basis, we need to address this before it starts to impact on the body and create more issues further down the line. The Gentle Breath Meditation is a very simple and practical tool that can support anyone to reduce their stress and anxiety considerably, as you suggest in your article.
Rachel thank you for the wisdom you share, I have found that stressful situations do change the way that I breathe, and having learnt the Gentle Breath Meditation I often use it at work, to bring me back to reconnecting to my body, and I find it a very helpful tool.
Rachel thank you for a very informative read about stress, I am now far more aware of how our everyday stresses affect our body and in particular how it can affect our dental health too, there is much to be said to be aware of what situations make us feel stressful.
It’s amazing and at the same time very easy to experience that when we choose to be gentle with our breath, our levels of stress are reduced dramatically. This doesn’t mean that the eventual complications of life disappear, but our perception and approach to them become more gentle and clear then.
Some great insights here Rachel which make so much sense. Thank-you.
Love your proposition, “Think of some of the things that get under your skin on a regular basis – things like waiting in line, time pressures, lack of sleep, noise, your job, money, your kids, relationships, getting meals ready, being stuck in traffic, shopping and so on.” I realise stress in my body is simply my reaction to whatever the trigger is, I can either react or I can look at the belief or expectation around anyone of these events that gives the reaction any traction.
In terms of oral health, as far as I was concerned, avoiding sugar and brushing teeth regularly was really just about it and I had never considered any link between stress and oral health but as you explain here the relationship is so obvious. This is such an enlightening article. Thank you, Rachel.
Breathing gently definitely always helps me to feel more chilled out, but I’m so used to feeling stressed that often I’ll just try to distract myself from fully feeling it, hoping it will go away by itself. But all I’m really doing in that moment is burying it, saying I don’t want to feel it and take responsibility for it, and abandoning my body in the process.
A far more effective way of dealing with the stress I’m feeling is to have a relationship with it. To go: okay, I feel anxious and stressed. Now I’m going to breathe deeply and allow myself to just feel, without needing or wanting to feel any differently. And as if by magic, suddenly I feel lighter and less stressed. Walking also does this – just focusing on my movements, keeping it very simple. Stress is a toxic poison. I wouldn’t choose to eat a toxic chemical for lunch, so why do I allow myself to absorb this toxin in a different way? It’s the victim mentality and the choosing not to be aware of how I got stressed in the first place – by putting too much pressure on myself – so that it feels like ‘it just happened to me’ instead of I looking at why I chose to put this pressure on myself and then react to it.
A very interesting article, that whilst reading sounds like pretty much most of the world are living with some form of stress. I never knew this ‘Also, stress can cause your body to flush out minerals like calcium from your body’ which I guess highlights the importance of taking minerals to support the body. Also I know that I did (and sometimes I still do!) grind my teeth at night and when I was younger always used to get tonnes of mouth ulcers so I would say this means my stress levels have been pretty high! But through reading more of your blog I then got reminded to feel my breath and how I can instantly change this in my life … thank you.
Ironically, when I am stressed, my stress is usually triggered by an idea that I do not have enough time or space for anything, as I am too busy. Well, that is not entirely true, I have enough time for work and “necessities” but seem to put everything else in the “sorry, I am too busy category” The great thing about the gentle breath meditation is it only takes a few minutes, it’s quicker than checking your Facebook feed. Although, sometimes my stress is so high that even those few minutes seem undoable, so ANOTHER FANTASTIC TOOL I learned from Universal Medicine is to begin to focus on conscious movements, training the mind to stay with the body, this is a mediation in movement and it is also very effective.
I can relate to what you are sharing Sarah, even going to the toilet can feel as taking to much time for myself during my work. I know it is crazy but it happens a lot amongst my collegeas too. And not going to the toilet for a pee gives stress on the body. The moment I decide to step out of this conciousness of clients first by feeling how I walk is a great tool and makes me go to the toilet too.
I know exactly what you mean, I have started drinking heaps of water so that I have to go to the toilet several times a day now. This has actually been great for me, as it allows me to have time out to feel myself, away from everything else. There is never a good time to take a break in my industry but I am now learning that I can move in a way that I am resting and connected.
An inspiring article confirming that there is a way to deal with stress simply by changing our relationship with ourselves and choosing to re-connect to the body by re-developing conscious presence and awareness. The Gentle Breath Meditation is a beautiful way to deal with stress in a very natural way..
http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/free/free-gentle-breath-meditations-an-introduction.html
I love that you have exposed the detrimental impact of stress on the body whilst highlighting that there is a way to take control of your life rather than be at he mercy of the outside world and all the pressures that life presents. Dealing with and addressing the end result is only a bandaid when true healing can come from empowering people to know they have control over their own wellbeing.
It is undeniable that the stress and unrelenting intensity of this modern-day world is having a devastating ripple effect on the quality of our overall health and well-being. The question is what are we going to do about it…
When we suffer with stress our body is put under stress too, as it attempts to deal with the overload of anxiousness and exhaustion our general health over time starts to deteriorate and breakdown, until we start to reconnect back to ourselves and start making more loving choices.
Thank you Rachel, some great reminders here on how we create stress and the way to support ourselves. It’s interesting how the mind plays such a big part in how stressed we can feel, from our “beliefs, ideals, perceptions and expectations”. Examining and letting go of these can have a huge beneficial effect.
What a beautiful insightful sharing Rachel, what I understand now is that everything is linked so how we live and how we breath have a huge impact on us. So it’s great to come back to the breath and feel how we are, and check and see if indeed we are breathing … it’s give us a time and space to just be, And yes our bodies love us for it.
The understanding to not take things personally is helping me enormously to not react to situations and people that I would otherwise react to. I may react but the tension within my body is reduced and it doesn’t take as long to clear.
I have been amazed at the way I no longer react to daily stressors in life. I’m not saying I never react but when I do it’s really noticeable and makes me pay attention to what’s going on and looking at why I reacted. This is with never-ending thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for the powerful and constant reflection of living life by ‘observing and not absorbing’.
What a comprehensive expose of the effects of stress on the state of our mouths. We really do understand so little of how our bodies function and respond to stress – we acknowledge hearts attacks, hair loss, panic attacks and the like as stress-related but our oral wellbeing? Probably rarely, if ever. It reminds me of another quote from Serge Benhayon: ‘Everything is everything and nothing is nothing’. Everything is deserving of our attention and understanding, and our relationship with stress and the state of our teeth, gums and mouths is no exception.
It’s interesting that we have almost become used to having stress in our lives, it’s like it’s almost normal to have to cope with the stress. There is a lot of support out there to help relieve the symptoms or give you a moment or a break from the stress, but interestingly very few things are actually there to say stress isn’t normal. It’s not a part of your everyday or the truth of how it should be and if it is, then there is a part you are playing in a world that is all to ready to continue to dish out stress for those who offer up their plate. It’s almost like we use the current forms of treatment to cope with the stress we are feeling so we can add more.
The Gentle Breath Meditation is a stress buster, it’s not only looking at supporting you when you are stress but also a technique that supports you to build out and see the stress is something you bring in and not something that’s inside you already. From choices on how we deal with a common place thing like stress we can see how we are becoming more and more unwell and yet not choosing to stop just yet. The Gentle Breath Meditation puts a stop to an energy that keeps running into having things like stress as I think most people would say they want less or don’t like stress at all and yet here we are with it impacting on us regularly.
“when an individual believes they are unable to cope.” This one I would say is a huge factor – our relationship with life and our perceived ability to deal with it in a supportive way. The sad thing is we give in to a world that belittles our ability to feel and read whats going on and ignores the fact that we can sense, read and respond all without mentally having full understanding of the situation. Something in us just knows how to respond and listening to my body has been the way to this inner knowing of how to be.
Thank you Rachel. a fascinating and informative insight into the cause and effect of stress on our body.
Thank you Rachel for such an informative , sensitive sharing . You have offered me a new way of looking at dental issues and the factors that may contribute to this.
Such an interesting article Rachel. It makes me ponder on the little things that I let affect me in the day and how each of those little reactions have a knock on effect on my body. It makes sense that it is the way we live on a daily basis that has the biggest effect on our well-being. As I was reading about breathing I realised I was shallow breathing and so changed that, so my breath was deeper.
Imagine if every healthcare practitioner was able to write about effects of stress upon their particular field… Stress takes its toll on every part of our body, reports come out about the extraordinary amount of stress in offices, and yet it is not screaming from the headlines… Where it most definitely should be because it is literally costing us billions and billions, and affecting us all.
Another fantastic and informative blog thank you Rachel. Stress is really a killer, it can long term contribute to so many health conditions, and here we learn that it also affects the health of our oral cavity, ‘Too much stress may not only spoil your mood, it can also spoil your health and your smile. There is mounting evidence that there is a strong link between stress and gum disease and dental health.’
Great summary of how stress affects our overall oral health as well, be that teeth or gums. It is always interesting to note that when we feel under a lot of pressure, the first thing that usually goes out the window are the simple daily and moment to moment ways we take care and support ourselves. Dental hygiene is one such example. We might quickly brush our teeth but don’t leave space for flossing, for example. And yet, these seemingly small and unimportant markers and moments of self care are deeply supportive and confirming of what is truly important in life.
It is the small things that stress us, related to us not accepting and appreciating the bigger picture in life .. the bigger we go and know about what we are all individually capable of, this will keep body in mind .. and thus less stress. This in turn will bring light to the small things of life, like waiting in the traffic or connecting to another person in the street .. essentially appreciation will grow for the small things.. As soon as we make life about how you relate to other people and how you care for this earth, the effects like an earth quake I saw this morning on tv will reduce else, we will repay in devastation to the earth and each other, lives lost, infrastructure delays, and money .. more stress. I find the bigger I go the smaller the stress is.
Thank you Rachel. It makes sense that stress can have an effect on every part of the body. “stress can cause your body to flush out minerals like calcium from your body, minerals which are found in bones and teeth”. This gives me the realisation that allowing the constant low level stress of everyday life to dominate, we are inviting osteoporosis to weaken our bones. The Gentle Breath Meditation is a beautiful gift to connect to our body and let go of stress and I always practise the Gentle Breath when sitting in the dentist chair.
“It’s our own internal beliefs, attitudes, expectations, interpretations, perceptions and other factors such as our personality, levels of self esteem and need for control or perfectionism, in combination with the external events that tend to create stress.” From my own experience I’d have to agree with this Rachel which is my I’m so thankful I came across Serge Benhayon and the way of living that he presents – a way of living that has completely changed the way I am with myself and others.
The thing about stress is there may be ‘little’ things we stress about or major life event that are stressful but everything is connected and thus we have invested in a way of life that is stressful, because it is always seeking for something. If I am worried about something for instance being to work on time, there is something deeper going on, perhaps there is a situation at work that I am already feeling anxious about and make myself late to not be aware of it.
Wow! This is brilliant. And this is just our teeth. What if every part/organ of our body was so finely attuned to what is going on and thus offers equally supportive and revealing truths as to how we are living? What if our body is capable of telling us EVERYTHING about every choice that we make?
The body has so many ways of telling you that you’ve gone into over drive. I used to get mouth ulcers when I was run down or stressed. These days I can feel it through the tension in my shoulders, neck, back, jaw and head. Also my memory starts to waver. The body does not enjoy being under so much pressure, and it tells us so.
It’s a very worthwhile exercise to check in with how you’re breathing. When I focus on this, I often find that I am breathing quite short and sharp breaths, and so I slow it right down and take deeper breaths so that the air goes all the way through my lungs and down to my stomach. It’s quite amazing how much that helps open up your body. It can sometimes also feel like a stretch through the chest and back, as those areas are often tense and locked up from the ‘holding on’ of the stress.
I don’t believe I was a jaw clencher/teeth grinder until more recently when my job became too stressful for me to handle. Everything you state about stress here is my experience. The stress has also accelerated an auto immune disease I’ve stopped getting my period. It’s safe to say that stress has had an enormous impact on my physical and mental health. I think we talk about stress like we talk about the weather, as if it’s something we can’t change and that that is just part of life. I disagree, I don’t have to live under this stress, and there are many things I can do to help support me out of it.
It is interesting to note the huge effect that stress has on oral health. It explains a lot of my past experiences with bleeding gums. This was an intense time in a period of my life that I was extremely anxious and stressed.
Another very informative and interesting blog, thank you Rachel. Stress is responsible for so many ailments, illnesses and disease in our bodies, yet many of us continually seem to create more and more stress in our lives. What is it going to take for us to wake up and take responsibility for our choices in life.
I have had dental issues my whole life and really appreciate getting put in the picture more about the truely damaging effects that stress have on the body. What’s interesting is that when we get a flu or a cold everyone gets so worried, checks in that you are taking care of yourself, chicken soup and ginger lemon tea and the common suggestions but when stress is present it can be much more insidious and at times can go unchecked. Lots of people, (including myself at one stage) think that bleeding gums when you floss your teeth is normal but it is actually a sign of unhealthy gums, if not gum disease itself and is totally preventable. If our fingers bleed from a string running over them, we would be worried but it seems because it is common, it become the ‘norm’ to have a diseased mouth.
Such a great article Rachel as stress is such a prevalent part of society and effects so many people in day to day life. Having recently been going through a more stressful period at work I find the simplicity of what you share about the tool of the gentle breath meditation such a great reminder. I am inspired to again use this amazing technique and already I can feel the benefit it brings through simply taking me out of my head and bringing me back to my body. Thank you.
When we let life get on top of us, we have the tendency to want to give up. It all seems so much. That is when we stop doing the things that support us most. Flossing is not only great for your oral health, for me it is a symbol of how much I care for myself and it is a moment of quiet to myself. These little things lay the foundation upon which we walk in our daily life.
I loved what you shared about stress in the opening paragraphs – it is daily life that is the cause of stress – waiting in traffic or a queue for example is where I would be extremely frustrated to the point where it was almost unbearable. Even when I had no real time pressures I would set myself up with deadlines that I had to meet, so then when things didn’t go according to my plan, I found it very stressful. But it was all self created. In recent years, whilst not a fan of traffic, I no longer have such reactions and I quite enjoy waiting in a queue – it’s a moment where I can check in with myself or chat to the person in front or behind. For me, I set myself up to be stressed and once I realised that, I was able to stop it. I stopped worrying about my plan and chose to flow more with life and with God’s plan.
Rachel you give dental care a whole new meaning in your sharing. Over the years I have had my fair share of dental issues, and reading your blog has helped me to see my part in these, and I am taking responsibility for this from now on.
Awesome article Rachel. every part of our body is affected by stress, but the effect it has on our oral health is not something I had before considered. Thank you for your understanding and clearly explaining the link between the two.
I’m sure that we could take any aspect of the body, and with enough study, we would see that stress takes its toll… Just this one thing is wreaking havoc on us all, and even if this was all that Universal Medicine presented, it would be enough to have U.M. as the go to site for this age… Amazingly this is not all that U.M. presents on… There is so much more.
Wow, there is so much in this blog to ponder on! What a super support for all who find their way to this blog. A friend of mine is currently having a lot of teeth problem, which I am going to send her.
It is logical but unfortunate that when we get stressed, the very things that support us to come back to ourselves, like the routines and rituals, are the first things to go out the window. The gentle breath is a way then to reconnect, so that we can come back to the connection that supports us.
Awesome article Rachel, very informative and supportive.
Not many people know the link between stress and oral disease. This makes sense.
I lived in a state of anxiousness most of the time when I was young; my diet was pretty healthy, but I suffered from many dental caries.
As an adult I seldom get dental caries, my dental hygiene and diet is good. What has helped me a lot is the Gentle Breath Meditation taught by Serge Benhayon,
Stress is causing illness and dis-eases like never before. It is skyrocketing. Yet it seems ridiculous that in the face of this reality, it is really just a simple choice of reconnection with ourselves and the building of the livingness of observing and not absorbing or taking on life on our shoulders so to speak that can change all of this in an instant. Our choice of living has more power over our health than we often care to think
Rachel thanks for sharing how stress can have an effect on all aspects of our life including our dental health. We often walk around blinded by the idea that stress relates only with the emotional side, but the body continues to carry the marker and call out for change more often than we choose to listen.
Through Universal Medicine I am learning that I can live in a way that reduces stress and be better equipped to understand my reactions to stress and that a lot of my reactions are due to my beliefs about how people and life should be – expecting life to be a particular way and being disappointed when this is not the case. I have found lifestyle choices such as dietary choices and when I sleep do not stop stress but because I am not exhausted and as I have a low sugar and low carbohydrate diet my blood sugar levels do not fluctuate as much so I find I am less emotional and far more reasonable, dare I even say wiser, when it comes to my ability to take daily stressors less personally.
This blog links the psychology and physiology of stress together and truly educates the reader but not as an intellectual exercise. Within this blog, if one gives a little space to reflect on their own life, there is a tremendous amount of insight and wisdom that has a practical application in day to day life.
Brilliant blog about stress Dr. Rachel Hall, too often we think it is “this, that and the other” that makes us stressed rather than ‘…..how we see, deal with and perceive life….’ As you suggest, stress is a reaction to daily life and considering the prevalence of stress in people perhaps it could be said stress is a spiritual or existential problem and also needs to be addressed at this level.
I like your informative blogs Rachel and the line that stuck out for me is ” The only thing we truly have control over is our own inner state of being”. Obviosly with this awareness comes the understanding of the importance of a healthy self caring lifestyle
Thank you, Rachel, for this deeply informative sharing. I love the way you weave the way stress not only affects our dental health, but our overall health in general and how our teeth are a reflection of how we are living and how we have lived our lives.
What I found interesting too reading this blog is that research has shown that people who were shy, apprehensive and given to worry would grind their teeth more at night. Could it be that if we keep things in, not expressing when we feel to, it has to come out at another point in the day and that is then at night in this instance, like literally eating your teeth!
What a great insight you offer Rachel into stress and how it is about how we react to life and what it presents to us more so than the situation itself. I can very much relate to how being aware of how I breathe has been an amazing tool to take charge in my own life and not be at the mercy of the world. I recently was really aware that when I feel out of sorts my breathing has changed as well. Choosing to breathe gently is then a great support to come back to myself.
What an inspirational blog and so needed as teeth and everything to do with our teeth don’t get a lot of attention in our day to day life.
“an interaction between the stressor, our view of the stressor and our perceived ability to cope with it.” Looking at this lately I completely agree that when there is a perception that an issue is bigger than us there is a HUGE amount of stress placed on the body. But as Serge Benhayon has presented that we are the masters of what happens within us and that nothing on the outside is grander than what is within, connecting to that which is within brings with it a sense of ‘I can handle what is before me’. As such the situation becomes less stressed, less tense and less tension in the body and jaw!
Great article Rachel making us aware that dental problems can arise from stress in our life, and how important is it to “observe life and not absorb it”.
I agree that ‘The gentle breath meditation’- taught by Serge Benhayon, is a simple and effective way to reconnect back to who we are and can help combat daily stressors from affecting us.
Dental health is often ignored when we look at our stress levels. We often find it hard to relate to or put the teeth aside altogether. Your blog highlights that the whole body is connected and each part has a part to play in the whole. Your insight has definitely got me thinking.
Recently I have had a fair amount of work done on my teeth so I find what you have written in regard to the effect of stress on dental and gum problems very interesting and something I will take note of
This is a great informative blog Rachel. I have recently become aware that I clench my jaw and the Gentle Breath Meditation is a huge support to connecting more deeply to myself and to having the awareness of what is causing me to do this. “Too much stress may not only spoil your mood, it can also spoil your health and your smile.” Thank you for highlighting the link between stress and oral health.
Having visited the dentist yesterday, my teeth, gums and mouth are in my awareness and I have just caught myself with a slight holding of the jaw. It just shows me that as I write I am still a bit tense when expressing, especially the written word. Our bodies are magic at revealing our reactions especially to stress and if we choose to feel and listen we can use techniques like the Gentle Breath Mediation as you suggest Rachel to support us, but it also gives us the opportunity to look at our underlying responses and an opportunity to see where we are holding stress or hurts.
I have always been interested in what stress is, how it effects us in all different aspects of our lives and what we can do reduce it. I have never made the link between stress and oral health. Great to get awareness on this aspect of our health. I loved the statement that it is not the major events, but all the daily irritations that create stress.
I agree, Monika, about the information that it is the minor issues or daily hassles that seem to cause the real stress … currently I’m having difficulty with coping with the seemingly non-stop demands and requests of me at work during this busy pre-Christmas time of year … I know it’s also coming from my attitude but cannot seem to find the space to sort it out just yet 😦
I love looking at the reflections that work offer us. Am I putting too much demand on myself, not clear in my verbal communication or communicating something different in my energy? I learned in June that my colleagues who kept coming with questions and things to do just before I was about to leave for 10 days, were actually communicating that they didn’t want me to go. So sometimes it is something else what is underneath the behavior and we have to allow ourselves to stop and feel into what is really going on.
It is interesting reading Rachael the level of stress can have on the teeth and mouth. How I suppose our expression in that area can be directly related to the day to day issues that arise for us.
I have noticed this too Gail. The markers are constantly showing in the body and Rachel sharing of how the level of harm stress causes is vital to read and share.
Today after years of not knowing I go to the dentist and learn that the marks on my tongue are due to the clenching of my jaw. Years of living in the belief that I need to be hard, on guard and protected have led to a hard and tense body, including my jaw. By allowing myself to care for my body, becoming more aware of it and how my choices affect it has opened up questions about my life that may lead to a greater understanding. Why would I feel the need to brace or be on guard and tense up my body? What am I protecting myself from and is this protection really protecting me? because so far it’s only brought to me nothing but health issues!
Rachel, as you say, that stress can impact on our dental health is not widely understood. Yet stress is not only a condition of modern society to one degree or another, but it continues to increase and to affect the whole body, causing a variety of illness and diseases, which are becoming increasingly difficult to diagnose and treat, and there is now a condition referred to as the ‘multi-symptomatic’ man.
Stress is the result of our lifestyle choices and the sooner people take responsibility for their choices, the healthier we will be as a society. As you say, “when we begin to realise that we can change, we can heal, and we can choose differently – we can choose a gentle breath, and a gentle caring way to be with ourselves, and others”. To do so would be life-changing.
“…”to observe and not absorb” that which goes on around us, to not take things so personally, to give people the freedom to make their own choices in life?” This feels like a loving approach, along with the gentle breath meditation, to reduce all of life’s incidental stresses which add up. Thank you for sharing this Rachel.
It is great that you bring oral health to our attention and the link with stress – for we can more easily pay attention to our weight, skin and outer appearance etc, and not make the connection to how stress effects our oral health. It is true that the daily living rather than the big life events are what trigger us into stress, which shows how we give our power away to what is happening outside of ourselves through going into reaction or ‘taking on’ (absorbing) what is happening around us.
I really appreciate the information you gave us about the physiology of stress relating to cortisol levels etc. Introducing the Gentle Breath Meditation here is perfect, as I have found it to be a very simple and powerful practice of coming back to me and bringing a quality of connection and steadiness that I can take through my day, no matter what is happening around me.
Yes I agree Sarah. It is common to pay attention to our weight, skin and outer appearance though our oral health is just as important, in fact the health of our whole body is.
It is so fascinating to read such an in depth analysis of how stress affects the body and the mouth, clearly the body does not like it and yet if unaware, we bombard it with it through the way we choose to live. I find the gentle breath meditation an amazing support in being able to truly stop and feel the energy I am running in and to bring my breath back to a rhythm that develops connection and awareness and feel that stress is such a choice and not a necessary response to life.
Considering the extraordinary toll that stress is taking on our worldwide workplace environment, homes and families, it would seem so clearly logical to take up and expand and expound what Universal Medicine is presenting, that it really is possible by simply connecting by oneself, in gentleness, and age-old stress paradigms can be let go, and in their place a connecting to an starting of a simpler harmonious richer life.
What a thoroughly comprehensive presentation of how our oral health is a precise indicator of how we engage with life on a daily basis. I love how you then present, Rachel, that an effective way to address both our oral hygiene and our stresses is not to withdraw and become hermits, but to consider how we are in, and with, life and to change the one thing we are truly responsible for, namely, the quality of our being with ourselves and with everyone else.
The route you carved towards the validation of “observe don’t absorb” was inspiring, Rachel: thank you.
Brilliant article Rachel presenting in such loving detail what I have long felt to be true from my experience with my own health and stress levels and that of observing others (as a nurse). The Gentle breath is a wonderful way to connect in with what is going on in the body and from there begin to make more supportive choices. Getting to know ourselves inside out is great medicine.
I agree Jeanette. Taking responsibility to get to know our bodies and listen to its constant messages is such great medicine.
Very interesting article Rachel especially the link between daily stress and oral health. A great reminder of how beneficial a simple technique like the gentle breath meditation can be in our daily life.
I loved reading your article, very interested. It is so important to understand the connections between the daily stresses with the inner beliefs and the impact on our body in every detail, to support oneself in establishing self-care. This caring and appreciative article should be provided in every waiting room of medical pracititioners, not only dentists. It is also great to get more known to the health care, the strength of our own body e.g. through the immune system, to support oneself. It is so good to get known, that as simple a thing as breathing is such a powerful life-changer. As this is the perfect answer and anti-dote to the root cause of stress, our own inner beliefs, not to be able to cope with something. Thank you very much!
Coming back to your informative blog Rachel, diet is one way I know I can improve my way of looking after my teeth, looking closely at what I eat and why. Thank you for sharing.
Great, thank you Rachel, I had not really considered the effects of stress on teeth, but now after reading your blog I can put some pieces together and see when my teeth have been affected by stress, and what triggers the stress. Great awareness to have.
When I’m holding myself back or stressed I clench my jaws so tight they ache. Actually my whole face aches. This blog has given me awareness to look at my day to day life and refine it to reduce the stress, to give me space to connect to me so I can shine especially through my teeth. Thank you Rachel.
This article is yet another example of the need to marry conventional medicine and Esoteric medicine. The wholi-ness that this generates makes things to fall into a clear place and everything makes a lot of sense. Thank you Rachel!!
I have always taken care of the basics of oral health but after reading your blog, I can now see where I can take this to a whole new level in terms of how I approach dental care. Granted, I love the feel of clean teeth and a fresh breath, but now I am seeing oral health as a vivid marker of how I am ‘doing life’. Thanks Rachel for a thought provoking blog.
Yes, Rachel Hall is taking dental care beyond perfunctory teeth brushing and relates dental health to the health of the whole body and even being. There is too little literature for the average person about how dental health relates to our overall health and vice versa. Thank God that dentist, Dr. Rachel Hall, is willing to share this information freely for the benefit of everyone.
Especially in the evening ritual when it comes to brush my teeth , I can exactly feel how my day was. Do I have the time and willingness and joy to take care of my teeth and how do I do it? Am I so tired or am I still vital? How do my tongue and gums feel? The food choices I made, are reflected on the surface of my teeth. Sometimes they almost don’t need a brush and sometimes I can hardly clean them. If I had a stressful day, my mouth feels like dried, as mostly I had taken too much salt or sugar through food into me.
One can be very playful by taking care of one’s teeth and by observing how our daily choices are reflected in our mouth.
Thank you for this Rachel. I am sure that many can relate to what you have shared about the feelings of stress here. I had to sit back a bit in my chair to take in the impact that stress has on our health and its cascading effects – it’s huge! Living in a constant state of not being equipped to cope with life is exhausting.
What I am discovering more and more is that there is a place in us that can deal with life in a way that is not stress-full or making a huge drama out of everything. And that place in us can be felt in the body. When I choose to connect to that place in me there is a steadiness that sees life as no big deal, situations that would have sent me off into a spin are now loosening their hold the more I connect to this anchor and guide within.
Thank you, Rachel, for this very informative piece. Such an interesting subject this is for me. I knew I ground my teeth sometimes, but I didn’t realise how bad it was until my dentist showed me a photo that clearly showed a fissure in one of my teeth, and he pointed out a few other things in my mouth that was related to bruxism. It was quite shocking. It’s amazing how oral health can be an indicator of the level of accumulated stress I live with on a daily basis.
As I read this I reflected on how much stress we put on our bodies by our attitudes and beliefs — on how we perceive life to be. We tend to live our lives not feeling truly supported, that no one really has our back, and then of course stress and tension is inevitable. We then blame ‘life’ for this, while all the while deep down w’ve forgotten that when we care deeply for ourselves, we start to connect to the support that is always there. That support from within us is what lets us navigate trough life without stress taking over.
I love the point you make here, Katerina, that connecting with our inner support is instrumental in deleting from our psyches the beliefs that life is a stressful place and that others are unsupportive of us. Addressing this has to start somewhere and the most logical place for each of us to do so is within ourselves.
Thanks for an awesome article Rachel, providing valuable information and explanations as to the effect of stress on the body and showing us that we don’t have to be at the mercy of outside influences – we can choose instead the gentle breath meditation to help maintain that connection with ourselves in order to not absorb all that is going on around us.
This is a very informative article Rachel, it is good to see how stress really plays havoc with our bodies and especially over the long term – just being a more stressy kind of person! It all takes its toll – no doubt why so many women have thyroid problems as they get older and the rising auto-immune illnesses!
Thank you for this very comprehensive and illuminating article on the effects of stress on dental health; as you so rightly say, we can’t live like hermits and thus, the one and only thing we do have command over is how we either react or respond to life around us and how we life life, what daily choices we make that either undermine and debilitate or support and nurture us.
Our body offers us such obvious signals that I am often surprised at the level of ignorance and irresponsibility in which we do not honour what our body shares with us. It has been through the presentations by Serge Benhayon that I have come to truly love and value the honesty from which my body shares with me.
Fantastic article Rachel, I’m currently studying with The College of Universal Medicine on a 4 week course about exhaustion, and the stress response and effects of cortisol in the body are part of what has been covered. I found this article expanded my understanding more deeply and I particularly loved the focus on gently breathing as a support for the body and to reduce reaction to common stressors. In my schooling and work life I really allowed a huge amount of stress in my life, and I was very much endorsed for pushing myself even to extremes. My body still shows the effects of all of this, so your article is deeply appreciated and very educational.
“to observe and not absorb” that which goes on around us, to not take things so personally, to give people the freedom to make their own choices in life? –
something that I am still working on. But I have found that if I take moments out of the day to stop, reconnect with the gentle breathe meditation, I am less likely to absorb and therefore react and become stressed.
Thank You Rachel, very interesting and inspiring blog. I have never given thought to stress and relating it with dental health but it makes sense. Any level of stress I know causes harm to our body and your blog puts it into perspective that everything is linked and one thing can affect another. It is an awesome reminder, to take the time to love and care for ourselves on a daily basis. It is how we choose to live that determines whether we have stress or not.
Thank-you Rachel for this informative article. I had not realised the amount of harm stress and anxiousness have on the body, including the mouth. I have noticed for myself by doing the gentle breath meditation it brings me back into my body and that supports me to observe and not absorb and therefore not to become stressed.
Rachel your love and passion for people’s oral health is really felt here. I love the way you have spoke about caring for our teeth and mouths, and at the same time our whole lives and bodies. It really emphasises further that no one part of the body is discrete or separate from another, and so how one part is will be affecting the whole. A brilliant article Rachel, thank you.
Thank you Rachel – it’s staggering to see how many people are affected by stress, and what impact it actually has on the body! I absolutely agree that looking at how we are living is a huge point of healing as to how we minimise stress rather than blaming it on external factors.
Great point, hvmorden. I have done this myself. It is easy to blame stress on external factors, like work, our environment and other people, but it is not until I take responsibility for my choices that I realise stress is something that I can choose. What I mean is I can choose to observe it or absorb it. I have also in the past created stress for myself and therefore it affects people around me. I have learnt that when I am in my gentleness, fully connected to who I am and move with awareness and love, stress can not enter my body. It may be around me, but I can choose to not absorb it or create it.
Yes Rachel, yes it can be as simple as me eating a lot of sweets in my youth to cope with my stress with the obvious effects on my teeth.
Although I used to hear people say that a certain amount of stress is good to have I cannot agree with that especially after reading your article. Stress as I understand it now is beneficial to us if we are in danger and have to save our lives so to say and will be only momentarily be required as long as our body is exposed to the danger. But when there is no hazardous situation for the physical body and we are building stress because of a certain state of mind we do things in, this stress is continuously present resulting in the fact that our bodies are constantly in this fight or flight mode, shutting down the healthy metabolic processes that normally keep the body healthy and vital. Why do we continue to choose using stress to do things in, for getting things done as this process of debilitating the body by running on high stress levels is all scientifically known and understood. Are we really that smart as we think we are with all the knowledge and know-how we have at our disposal?
I love returning to this informative blog Rachel. “The only thing we truly have control over in life is our own inner state of being.” This is a wonderful reminder to re-connect with myself throughout my day and to continue to deepen my commitment with my own gentle breath. Thank you.
Awesome informative blog Rachel. It’s amazing how everyday stress can be linked to many ailments in the body, including oral health.
I love the simple solution to reconnection, as being the gentle breathe meditation, instructed by Serge Benhayon. It definitely works.
Thank you Rachel a great article and one that just makes sense. It is so true what you have written about the day in and day out things that always happen in life, the routine stuff and how we can feel stressed about this. It’s the constant effect of this that does affect our whole body and the way we are in the world.
I’m off to bed now to do the gentle breath meditation before I go to sleep!
Even talking about stress has a stigma about it in many professions, although some of these walls are definitely tumbling down due to the sheer weight of numbers and the toll on our health systems. But it still needs to be openly and clearly presented that EVERYONE is stressed, and collectively the world needs to return to that most simple and gentle of reconnection processes that Rachel writes about, that has always been there and never leaves us, until our last one.
This is a very informative blog Rachel. I had not realized that everyday ‘stress and our response to it can also impact on the mouth, teeth, jaws and gums’. Thank you for bringing so much light to this subject.
This is so comprehensive and beautifully supportive for any reader, thank you Rachel. I have slowly and greatly reduced my chronic anxiety and stress levels due to regular moments of focussing on my gentle breath. It allows the tension in my soft tissue to soften and as I feel easier in my body I feel easier in my self and the distracting thoughts that come in so often are less.
It makes so much sense what you have presented with stress levels and mouth problems, gum disease, jaw, head and neck problems. I have worked in physiotherapy for many years with people with complex chronic pain including teeth grinding, jaw pain and sleep problems.
Over the last 15 years I have been sharing with my clients the great calming benefits of the gentle breath as presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. It is so natural and so affective that the majority adopt it in their day as a normal part of their self care – just like drinking water when you are thirsty. They have all said how quickly it helps them relax their body and themselves and helps reduce their pain and stress levels too.
Rachel I love the connection between stress and oral health. This is not something I had considered before, but when I reflect on my own oral health I can see this has been the case. It’s a great reminder to consider what we take on in life and one I commit to addressing every day.
Absolutely love your article Rachel, Thank you. It was great to read about all the day to day hassles that are the contributors to living with a certain level of stress, more so than stress being a major catastrophe. And the interaction between the stressor and how a person navigates themselves around these day to day stresses, really introduces us to our lifestyle choices, habits and behaviors. All of which are probably coping mechanisms related to the stress we live in. “Observe not Absorb” is true medicine for a person and certainly the tip of the iceberg of introducing self care into our lifestyle.
Your blog made such sense and I loved the way it was all encompassing. It felt so easy to connect the science of what you were saying to what I felt in my body. It engaged with my body and allowed me to feel the impact of how I have treated my body, and in particular my teeth. I realise how much I have taken my teeth for granted – until they began to let me know that I was not considering the impact of how I was living and how this played out in my teeth.
A great article Rachel, very informative and well researched. I have known that stress has caused my gum disease and for a long time I denied this. Becoming more gentle with myself caused a realisation of how often I sabotaged my dental health and by being more aware of the stress I was creating gave me reason to look after my gums and teeth.
I can relate Janne as growing up I did not take loving care of my teeth and it has been a development of over 8 years now that I regularly attend the dental clinic run by Rachel which has supported me to bring a deeper level of care and love to not only my teeth but my whole sense of well-being.
I agree Janne. Rachel’s article is full of great information. I too have had a history of poor gum health as a result of not taking care of my body and infrequent visits to the dentist. I now go regularly to the dentist and hygienist, have made changes to my diet and how I live my life along with taking much more care of my teeth and gums, and the difference is remarkable. Everything really is connected to everything.
Thank you Rachel for a very informative post. It is interesting to note that our day to day life appears to be what causes the most stress. It seems to me that it all comes back to our rhythm and how we choose to live in each moment and by coming back to our own breath and how we breathe it, we can come back to ourself and live life from our own flow instead of the ebbs and flows of the world outside of us.
Yes Karen this is a great point. It’s about us connecting to our own rhythm and choosing to connect to our own breath. To not let outside stressors take us away from that.
What I got from your post Rachel is that our smile goes far beyond oral health/hygiene and that its beauty is found in the way we live life. Our mouth/teeth are therefore like junctures of life each telling a story serving as reminders about the way we live, and importantly the choices we’ve been making. Our teeth speak the unspoken, and reveal great truths.
I love your comment Zofia – from Rachel’s fully supportive and revealing blog I have a far deeper appreciation of how our body is always communicating to us how we are living. Whether its supporting the body or depleting the body – as in chronic stress shown by gum disease. Thats a new one for my book on the body !
It was an absolute revelation to read that our most significant stressor is day to day life. This makes total sense and yet it is not something I have considered before.
I used to grind my teeth in my sleep and caused a lot of damage to my teeth. When I stopped drinking coffee the grinding instantly stopped too. My dentist was amazed. Clearly that morning coffee was exacerbating my daily stressors to unmanageable levels.
It’s so interesting to bring attention to evidence linking stress and gum disease and dental health. It’s fairly common knowledge that stress negatively impacts our health but I did not consider my teeth were at risk. Your blog really highlights the all encompassing truth of how ‘everything affects everything’ and that ‘everything affects everything’ means exactly that, not one particle of our body, our life and even all others escapes the impact of everything else. It’s really quite amazing and also puts a new slant on our responsibility to self-care with tools like the Gentle Breath Meditation for example.
an excellent reminder Jeannette that everything does mean everything – including our teeth!!
Yes Lee so true, including our teeth, and they tell us much more than just a smile.
I loved this very informative article and learnt so much about stress and the body. Thank you Rachel for your expression. I can feel the level of care, integrity and wholeness you bring to your role as a dentist. I would love to have you as my dentist 🙂
I have found the Gentle Breath Meditation to be a very simple, real and practical support to manage my feelings of day to day stress. Here is a link to a recording of how to do the Gentle Breath Meditation. This is a must listen to audio http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/free/meditation-for-beginners/introductory-gentle-breath-meditation.html
I can certainly relate to the feeling of acidity in my mouth when I am run down, exhausted and chasing my own tail. It makes perfect sense that this would then affect my gums and my teeth as well as the rest of the body. And it makes perfect sense that the art of living is then in how we respond to life rather than react to or brace ourselves against it.
Yes, we really abuse our body without really noticing it when we run the body down or exhaust the body. A lot more negative and cumulative things happen at that time.
Thank you Rachel for a truly enlightening blog. I had not thought of stress affecting so much of our bodies health. I do know, as you have mentioned that stress can affect the jaw, I have felt the tension myself when stressed and also my shoulders. I have not been connecting to the gentle breath as much as I could so thank you for the reminder, plus the fact that Serge Benhayon has taught that ” one of the ways we have command over is our inner state is via the breath”. There is much to ponder on here Rachel and learn from.
Wow Rachel what an awesome article, the everyday stress we accept as normal is holding us in disease patterns caused by choices that are not loving for our self or others. To breathe and connect with our self and the quality of tenderness we innately are, which allows connection with others, is the first step in feeling what is and what is not a loving choice, with the awareness we deserve all the love that is on offer.
So true Paul. The everyday stresses that we indulge in do lead to ill health. I say indulge because these stresses can help us get caught up in the goings on and prevent us from connecting to that tenderness that we innately are as you suggest. Why would this be an indulgence to not feel? Because if we truly feel this tenderness, then we will also feel how often we are not choosing to be this, and it can be very confronting to know that we are choosing to not be that which we truly are.
It is timely that I am reading this blog, as I contemplate some oral surgery that I have been offered. After reading your blog Rachel, it came to me that so often we view our body parts in isolation, as if we can fix one part and not think about the effect on another part – probably a bit like how life is compartmentalised by us at times. Of course it is much easier to view life this way, as we don’t need to be responsible – we just get the bit that is broken fixed. So as I contemplate the possibility of oral surgery, I can feel how I have lived in anxiousness which would not be obvious to most people who know me, as I do not present as an anxious person. However on reflection I can feel how thoughts have gone around in my head, often producing exaggerated scenarios which may never eventuate – it could be about money, how I am going to fit everything in today, will my son be safe on his bike riding home, how will we cope with mum’s deteriorating memory etc…
As Rachel has explained so thoroughly, this creates a reaction in the body which can impact on other organs or structures such as teeth. So as I contemplate this surgery I feel a deep appreciation that I have the opportunity to clear some of the old energy which has surfaced in my body. I feel that I have not always had a good rhythm with the Gentle Breath meditation and that I need to fully incorporate this into my life to help me to manage my anxieties in a more self loving way.
There is much offered here for reflection – thank you for a post that is supported with research, science, physiology and for opening up ‘stress’ to include the little things in daily life. I remember reading some medical advice a few years ago that said ‘remove stress from your life’, I was irritated by how ridiculous or ignorant a statement this was. Sure on a daily level there are many ways we can support ourselves to reduce the number of stressful situations eventuating but as Rachel points out life will present stressful situations so it is far more empowering to address how we respond to this on a day to day level and develop a way of ‘being’ that is fit for life.
Yes, it is the little everyday ‘stressors’ in life that have the biggest impact on health – cold sores were my instant indicator that the body was run down by stress, as I would not even be noticing the rising levels of distress, it feeling almost a normal state of being for me. The gentle breath meditation and a more gentle way of being have changed my health enormously, and cold sores are now a very rare warning signal to stop and observe what is going on within me these days.
Observing and not absorbing and not taking things personally are easier said than done at times. However, in my experience, I am much less stressed when I don’t take things on and don’t take it personally. I have used the gentle breath technique many times and find it very stilling and it brings me back to myself in the present. Observing and not absorbing remains a work in progress for me, but the benefits are clear. Thank you for sharing this insight Rachel.
I had not previously considered that all the little stresses of the day add up to far more than the occasional major stressful incident. It makes such sense that we should simplify our lives & look at how we react to everything. A good start being the examples that you give, such as traffic jams, queues & family members. Thank you.
Truly amazing article Rachel that has inspired so many true and loving comments. This is such an revelation to the world at large, also to the dental profession and the many psychology-related therapists. This simple technique of breathing gently should be taught to all incumbent students of any health care profession. We are surely blessed to have learned the importance of the gentle breath meditation as presented by Serge Benhayon.
The more I investigate life and people, the more glaringly apparent it becomes that everything about us is interconnected from our cellular interactions to stress and gum disease. Could it be that, as the Ageless Wisdom espouses, all people are interconnected too?
I love to watch the gentle ebb and flow of a baby’s breath. We are all born knowing how to just be.
Thank you for such a detailed article Rachel, I had never thought about how stress would affect the mouth and dental health like that, although it makes perfect sense.
Indeed Josephine, Rachel has highlighted so beautifully how our mouths and teeth are also affected by the degree we take on in life or react to it. It raises the question, how much are we invested in life or people being a certain way and does this create stress in our bodies, teeth and gums?
Such an interesting, informative blog Rachel – thank you. Although I’ve always looked after my teeth/gums really well, a bit too well sometimes with the over brushing but that was the easy one for me to work with. I was a night time clencher and most of your descriptions of this I could tick most of the boxes, eg migraines, facial pain, anxiousness, sleep problems etc. I was loosing teeth through cracking them, my dentist would look at me and say another healthy tooth to be extracted. My very patient dentist suggested a night guard for me to wear. This I did but, more often than not this foreign object in my mouth would end up on the bedroom floor. It was not until learning about the gentle breath meditation from Serge Benhayon did I notice changes with this night time habit. Gradually as I introduced more self loving choices into my life this painful habit has virtually ceased.
It is amazing how powerful the gentle breath meditation is as your case shows Marion, by the fact that you have managed to let go of this deep rooted habit. I’ve been told I am a night time grinder myself but I’ve never caught myself in the act although I have been practising gentle breath meditation for some years. I do notice that my mouth holds a lot of tension though and I have found esoteric yoga extremely supportive of releasing the holding around my mouth. I make a very conscious effort to let go of that tension whilst I am practising yoga, it’s a greater marker of how present I am or not if I feel the tension creep back in.
Found this blog vey interesting and supportive, really enjoyed reading about the physiological outcomes and implications of feeling stressed. There is so much to gain from being aware of self care in our daily life.
Great to read such a simple yet comprehensive outline on stress on the body and how the Gentle Breath Meditation and awareness of breath throughout the day can lower stress levels, having a very positive effect on health. I am working on this myself at the moment, so very supportive and encouraging to read, thankyou.
It’s awesome how you bring to the fore the correlation between stress and gum disease and do so in such a way that makes a lot of sense and invites the reader to the possibility that making more loving choices in one’s overall lifestyle may in fact have a direct effect on reducing stress related gum disease. I know through my own personal experience of the gentle breath and choosing a gentle caring way with myself, I have returned to a more natural and consistent state of calm, my teeth grinding has ceased and my overall dental health has improved significantly.
Thank you Rachel for the confirmation that ‘everything is connected’.
It’s so powerful Rachel how the way we are has an affect on every single cell. Our teeth as you make clear, can be a shining (or sometimes not so shining) example of our approach to life. Your blog reminded me that its possible to smile with all of me, instead of just my teeth.
Thank you Rachel for the timely reminder to use the Gentle Breath meditation that Serge has taught us when things start to stress me out, I haven’t been practising it as often as I could. The information you share is very informative and really exposes the need to just stop and connect before we get to the stressed state that takes a lot longer to clear.
Very informative blog Rachel, I didn’t realise stress had such an affect on our teeth and gums. Thanks
I love your whole blog but especially enjoyed the part with the explanation about breath and breathing – we must be getting the breathing right from a physiological perspective as we are still alive, but it is the quality of our life that comes from the way we breathe! Awesome, as are you!
Thankyou Rachel, I totally agree. It is the accumulation of the little daily hassles and irritations that cause me the most stress and overwhelm, not the major life events…. The gentle breath meditation is a divine way of allowing me everyday to slow down, to be aware of how I am caring for myself (or not caring for myself). This supports me to make the appropriate adjustments of how I am living each and everyday to prepare myself for the next day and the next day after that….
Thank you Rachel… I learnt so much reading your blog. My mouth gives me lots of clues, like ‘geographical tongue’, teeth grinding and clenching my jaw but something I consider everyday is how I’m breathing. I know so clearly when I’m stressed, as I hold my breath or breathe faster. This part stood out for me particularly today – “Take time out of your day to connect to yourself, breathe gently and de-stress.”, I could feel the stress and instead of letting it build and build I went for a walk.
Brilliant blog and a great reminder that not only our physical health can be affected by daily stress but also our oral health.
The understanding that stress has an effect on our physiological systems as well as our psychological is spoken of but in my experience not deeply felt. It is easy to breathe through the stress – we tend to get through things right? But what is the body learning when we push through and what are the long-term effects. Interestingly when I chose to start breathing my own breathe based on the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine the effects on my body were such that I could arrest these stressing moments just by making the choice to come back to me, to breathe for me and hold that space. Isn’t it amazing that we can all make this choice yet it is not shown to us from young as a way of truly honouring ourselves and supporting us through daily life.
I have often felt how stress impacts on my overall emotional and physical wellbeing and after reading this blog have a greater understanding of just how much stress my body must be under when I notice that I am clenching my jaw or have a mouth ulcer. It is so easy to go ‘oh yeh I have a mouth ulcer, buy something to put on it and wish it to disappear as quickly as possible’. It is another thing altogether to stop and consider how I have been living and maybe change things about my lifestyle choices, which if chosen, just may stop me clenching my jaw or getting mouth ulcers forever.
Beautiful to feel living need not be at the mercy of day to day stresses – having the tools available, that support our most fundamental basis for any and every choice made. Certainly brings a smile to my dial!
Really interesting to read how stress affects our oral health. Obvious, as stress affects our whole body, but I had never before contemplated it as such. Thankyou for this Rachel.
Thank you Rachel for explaining so clearly how stress affects the body, particularly the mouth. The gentle breath taught by Serge Benhayon is a beautiful simple tool to reconnect to my heart, become still within and let go of the stress.
This is a fantastically clear explanation of what stress is and how it effects us.
I used to always get a mouth ulcer when ever I was feeling overwhelmed or had been ‘burning the candle at both ends’, a sure sign I was stressed. I now get a mouth ulcer if I eat certain foods (anything sweet or sugary) and I feel that this is showing me that even eating certain things is causing stress in my body.
Thank you for your sharing how to simply de-stress and to improve our health.
Laura what you say here is so true, I have experienced the same, even to the point where if something I am about to eat is too salty I begin to cough before it even gets right into my mouth!
Rachel has shared so much of great value in her lovely blog.
Hi Jeanette, your comment really made me laugh, as there have been quite a few times where i’ve coughed, dropped, tripped or spilt and even bit my lip before I go to eat something I know I really shouldn’t, and the same if I over eat. Although I don’t always listen or like the message at the time, looking back it is quite comical the way we get these little signs.
Thanks for this Rachel, superb writing that is so informative and easy to understand. I generally avoid stress like the plague and never realised it could have such an effect on our teeth and our over all health. Just over the last couple of days my wife has been away for her dad’s funeral and I have been solo dad and I lost a major contract reducing my income and my Vat return wouldn’t file so I was feeling the dreaded stress. Something I would hate to have to handle on a daily basis. You are so right the gentle breath is a god send.
This is a great article Rachel, highlighting the link between stress and dental health. I’m sure most people don’t realise that stress can have such a detrimental affect on our teeth and gums. But how could it not? Stress affects the whole body of which our teeth and gums are a part.
Rachel there is such a lot in your article and worth a second, third read.
It makes sense that the everyday things which contribute to getting run down would eventually lead to illness. I have observed and experienced for myself how stress can affect health within the workplace and quite often when people work all day and then into the night, often go sick a couple of days later or come down with a cold.
Rachel I had not really considered that the daily stress, the little things we brush over is actually more harmful than major life events. But that is so very true. With major events we find ways and may get support to deal with them yet the daily way we live life and all the little things that build up we take as “part of life”. Further reflecting needed!
David I completely agree it is definitely something to reflect on, how the smaller things that happen daily we tend to brush over, are often the things that cause more stress than the big events.
Exactly and it makes me reflect on how we can live for years with smaller “niggling” issues. I know I’ve thought I can “manage” with those but hadn’t connected them to the real drain I felt.
David and Amita how true. I use the metaphor of the little pebble in your shoe being more irritating that the mountain in the distance. This is a great article and I am a living proof that stress wreaks havoc on your teeth. The teachings of Serge Benhayon have taught me to be responsible for my own health and the benefits are very real.
Rachel I love your blogs – they are always so inspiring, simple to read and full of things to ponder upon and how to be different with oneself in daily life.
It’s so true that we can’t control things outside of ourselves but can attend to how we feel on the inside. Thanks for this informative article on stress, it’s impacts and how the gentle breath meditation can help.
It makes sense when you do the numbers that daily stresses are more detrimental than the bigger ones: add up all the little stresses and they are a mountain the body has to deal with; with very little recognition this is even going on…
‘The only thing we truly have control over in life is our own inner state of being’ Thank you Rachel for so succinctly summing up the main reason I have historically had so much stress in my life because I was always focussing on everyone else and not taking responsibility for myself and my own health. Committing to a daily practice of the Gentle Breath Meditation has transformed my life and my health and wellbeing and I no longer get ulcers etc because of the different choices I am making to support myself.
Great Blog. Thank you Rachel for highlighting the massive effect stress has on our wellbeing.
I love this blog Rachel, informative of the vast amount of systems stress can affect and all that can go wrong with one very simple, real technique to begin the solution in the gentle breath. I have spent £10k probably to one of your colleagues, in a dental practice in Leeds, due to severe TMJ. This teeth grinding built up through reaction to copious amounts of narcotics in uni, followed by the death of my Dad and both my boyfriends parents, and trying to make my way in sales…. The pain was so intense as was my acid reflux and I was taking a lot of medication to manage that. In general I was wired. I tried many alternative therapies, hopping from one to the next as nothing offered a long term solution, then I found Universal Medicine 2 years ago. Through the process of cutting out pretty much all stimulants, I now feel the real me. Currently that is anxious and exhausted! But this is good! Because I’m feeling it and not covering it up with all the stimulants and medicine, I can start to deal with it. So I go to bed early now and become very aware of my thoughts and as often as I can I disengage my head, and connect with my all loving heart, where there is no anxiousness. This transition from being in my head that drove all of the dramas leading to such a severe situation with my teeth and jaw, to my heart is made possible by the gentle breath. I have practised this for 2 years, not consistently, but now whenever I notice myself contract with the first signs of stress, my new automatic response is to connect to my heart through my breath. And it works, it instantly defrosts my wrinkled head and relieves my headache, it drops my shoulders, relaxes my forearms etc. I still get pain in my jaw sometimes but never have to take pain relief now.
Awesome reflections Rachael thank you for sharing.
Indeed, awesome reflections Rachael. It’s amazing to feel the stress mount up so physically, and then when my awareness reminds me of the impact of stress (and when you get to read blogs like this of course), I get this sheepish child-like feeling inside…a kind of physical reminder that I do know better. That I really do know simply re-engaging and committing to my breath is a sure fire way to relieve my whole being of the stress that has mounted up. What I really love about Rachel’s blog here is very much the reminder of how everything interlinks, so the stress from this choice and that choice, and that we as individuals have the capacity to prevent and manage that all of the time. Just amazing.
Hi Rachel, I really enjoyed reading your blog. It all makes so much sense that stress would contribute to health problems and being run down, including mouth problems. I have noticed over the years how my jaw was locking when I yawned but since practising the gentle breath it has eased and the pain has reduced significantly. Now I am more aware of when I am holding tension in my jaw.
Thank you Rachel, I enjoyed this detailed account of the effects of stress on the teeth and gums. Much in here I had not realised before but all makes sense as the body is a whole after all!
Thank you Rachel, my dentist recently suggested to me to wear a mouth guard at night for six month as it appear that I have problem with grinding my teeth. I must focus more on breathing more gently.
‘The Gentle Breath can be utilised as a tool that can assist the body to become more harmonious and bring us back to our natural calm, relaxed state of being so that life’s influences do not impact so greatly upon us.’ Inspiring words, thank you
What a great article Rachel I had never stopped to ponder on the effect of stress on the mouth – what an education. thank you
Really enjoyed reading this article, thanks Rachel and I never knew about all the effects of stress upon oral health and hygiene, makes sense. Yes it is to breathe gently and to smile broadly which can only bring but positive effects to self and to others!
‘breathe gently, smile broadly’ Simply lovely, A broad, true smile can really change someones day.
Zofia I too had never realised the effects of stress can have on the oral health and hygiene. I recall now looking back in my late twenties early thirties, I use to suffer from lots of mouth ulcers, I use to be told it was due to stress, run down or not eating properly. It all makes more sense now.
Thank you Rachel for bringing to us the importance of how stress can affect us in so many ways. I had noticed how my smile had changed from my teens to my early 50’s. It never looked as honest, was thinner and not as full. Since my life has become simpler, the stress and anxiousness has begun to fall away, my true smile has come back. I can still get stressed especially at work, but I take a few moments to feel my breath and allow the gentleness to come back.
I love the way Rachel feels the whole of the person/body, and not just the mouth or teeth. What is presented here gives anyone feeling ‘stressed’ the possibility of another way. I see my hygienist quarterly, she always knows the type of three months I have had by looking at my teeth, and gums, whether its the staining on my teeth, or any bleeding of the gums etc Our bodies offer us so many clues as to how we are living our lives, and the mouth is an area that can also show us how we are living our lives, so that if we take notice we can make changes that support us. I had a dental check up with Rachel when I was in Australia. It was a truly supportive experience and one I would repeat if I am in Australia again.
An awesome article, Rachel. Thank-you so much (I’ve learnt a lot). “Stress” is such a broadly used term, and one that appears all too conveniently used to blame things/people/events/influences outside ourselves for what we may be experiencing. And yet, from practising the Gentle Breath meditation myself for several years now, and ‘checking in’ with my breath, and how it is, in my daily living, I’ve found also, that my body experiences enormously less ‘stress’ than it did prior. No other meditation or breathing technique gave me as clear and simple a marker in my own body as to how I was responding (or reacting) to things in my life.
From the Gentle Breath, my ability to be aware of any stress-inducing reactions has deepened, as does my ability to work with underlying issues which may lead me to react in the first place, i.e. to be self-responsible for what ‘stresses’ me. There is ‘no perfection’ in this, and yet it is such an enormous gift I give myself, everyday. For with building my awareness of my own breath, I can ‘return’ to it with considerably more ease now than I once used to, and actually choose to return to myself/reduce the stress in my body with great simplicity (& also feel with so much more honesty where I and my physical body/state are actually at).
To finish, there’s a short story I’d like to share: I recently presented the Gentle Breath technique to a client with quite serious lung and heart medical conditions. She can have choking/coughing episodes which are very scary for her (at the time, she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to actually get her breath/knows she may die from these..). She embraced the technique, and the next time she had such an episode (after it was over), she was for the first time able to return to a sense of calm in herself and her body. Previously, she would be left ‘heaving’ for breath, and in an highly emotional and distressed for many hours following, sleep would be difficult, etc. She was so proud of herself that ‘she’ did this ‘herself’, and fully admitted, that were it not for her conditions, she never would have come to try – and regularly apply – such a technique. She would have dismissed it. Now she knows that what she faces in her body is not easy, but she is truly thankful to find such a tool to support herself, and wouldn’t go a day without giving herself several moments to stop, be with, and consciously choose and nurture her own Gentle Breath.
What a lovely example you shared with us Victoria, of how the Gentle Breath meditation can change lives. Well done that lady!
Awesome, Rachel. A great reminder to brush, floss and breathe! With love, Anne.
Thank you Rachel for your beautifully put words, stress is a grand factor of ill health in our lives, I whole heartily agree. What I found quite crazy was I once went to a retreat to learn how to meditate, we spent days at the retreat just sitting on our bottoms meditating and occasionally eating. Then upon arriving home I was more stressed post retreat as I was pre retreat as I was not able to find the time in my day to meditate. Then I came across the Gentle Breath Meditation that Serge Benhayon taught, which only took 5-10 mins. On top of this I was making changes in my life inspired by what Serge Benhayon shared, which was creating space in my daily way of being, My life has totally changed and my family and friends comment on this new steadiness they see in me and are amazed at the new lack of stress in my life…..
Hi Rachel – great article – thank you – I taught stress management to groups for 20 years and I always included gently breathing as a technique for relaxation. Plus taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life because the world is simply a reflection of how you are. I can tell you the exact cause of mouth ulcers for me – I tend to suck in my cheeks and chew the inside of my mouth when I am anxious about anything! Carmel – UK
Rachel, I loved reading this and being reminded to continue to check in with my breathing and deepen caring gently for myself and others. I have already incorporated these techniques into my life and it has had a huge impact on decreasing the stress and complication that was once there. I shall look forward to seeing what else will unfold for me as I continue to make loving choices for myself.