Yknow you really don’t know how much your mental health impacts your physical health until you start seeing it fall apart under serious mental strain.
Just noticed the gums on a few of my teeth receding- like I’m pretty sure the bone is exposed (I’ve always had like, really little gum and giant ass teeth, part of why I do my best to take care of them), which doesn’t make sense because I kinda obsess over brushing and cleaning in-between them whenever I can remember to take time for myself (pretty much every morning and most nights because thank you ADHD and depression you really don’t need to get worse after a long day, but for some reason you do, but I do my best to maintain healthy habits so I don’t experience long term consequences from y’all’s shit, so suck my dick)
I don’t have cavities- haven’t in years, and my gums normally don’t bleed much if at all, but I guess I didn’t pay attention to my spit until this morning cause it was bloody as hell. So I took a look. And one of my lower teeth is just. The gum used to be there not long ago. It’s not there now!
So I panicked. Obviously. I spent too much money fixing my shit teeth genetics so that I could smile without breaking mirrors and I DID NOT go through hell with mouth devices in middle school to have my bottom teeth fall out under mysterious circumstances.
So I did a quick little read up on it online. Apparently stress is REALLY BAD for your gums. And teeth. And the bone surrounding your teeth. It can make you prone to infections and periodontitis, if not make you more vulnerable to developing it.
And for several months I have been under, like, some of the most SEVERE stress of my life ever because thank you shitty chemistry teacher and thank you gifted student complex that makes me judge my self worth through my grade point average, you’re both bastards and I hate you both for this.
My diet hasn’t changed too much, I’m too broke to be eating absurd amounts of junk food when my mom still insists on cooking for me. And my home-cooked meals still include vegetables and starches and meats, so pretty wholesome meals all in all. My oral hygiene, while sometimes spotty because mental health, hasn’t been consistently neglectful because I recently decided I wanted my teeth to not be stained Brit yellow as a tea drinker, so I bought an expensive whitening tooth paste (with fluoride of course), and in order for it to work and continue working I need to brush consistently obviously, so that’s been motivating me to brush and I’ve seen it help. My gums are a healthy pale pink, not bloody red or swollen.
I even have one of those pick and mirror kits you can buy at the store that I use to check my teeth out and for missed or suspicious spots. Listen, ok, I had one of those telescoping rods installed in my mouth in middle school, a power chain, wedges, and rubber bands. My mouth was torn to fucking hell to fix my teeth and not have them fall out because they were fighting for space (because they were massive and I also had to have them shaved down just to fit in my mouth. By like a lot. A lot a lot). And I’m not doing that shit ever again. Like NEVER EVER. I had a permanent retainer installed on my lower teeth (haven’t broken it yet) and I wear my upper retainer at least once a week (again forgetfulness is worse when I’m exhausted and I wear it at night. Still trying to build that healthy habit, and it still fits even if a little snug sometimes. It’s still Better than never wearing it.)
But they’re receding on a few of my teeth and that’s a recent development because during my last dentist appointment my dentist said I was looking great, just to keep an eye on a potential problem area we’ve been watching over the years, but I’ve had no issues with it so far. That problem area WAS NOT my gums, or my gums attempting to evacuate existence. And I have had a little sensitivity to temperature but I assumed “well whitening toothpaste duh”. Now I’m starting to suspect it’s because my stress levels are causing my body to not function correctly and that’s affecting me physically. I’ve had more evidence for this theory but I’ve been dismissing it aside from this, including heart palpitations, trouble sleeping, a grey hair (I’m deadly serious unfortunately), stomach issues, menstrual irregularity even on BC, consistently elevated heart rate, and other issues. Mostly because honestly I don’t know of ways to manage this kind of stress in the context of adult life when nobody has time for themselves anymore between working and school.
This is the stuff people don’t talk about when it comes to stress. It’s always this intangible concept when talked about; but it’s not. It’s a physical manifestation and process in your body. You experience it, and it’s real even when you can’t feel or see it. And its impacts are really terrible for people’s health. But we don’t talk about those far reaching physical effects. We only talk about the emotional aspect of it, but it has an extremely physical impact on the body, and it can fucking kill you if not cause long-term harm.
I wish I knew how the fuck to make time for myself and fix this but I cannot manifest extra time for myself out of thin air, so I’ll just have to wait till things chill again and remember to do life at my own pace again.