THE JOURNAL
Illustration by Ms Choi Haeryung
We all deal with stress in different ways. Some of us make lists, some of us exercise, some of us overindulge, while others skip meals. Me? I lock my jaw up nice and tight until my head and face ache and my neck is stiff as concrete. Until the pandemic came along, I preferred to handle my stress gastrointestinally, but within a few months of enforced downtime, I found myself dealing with a dull but constant pain that would develop throughout the day and follow me around my 500sq ft flat. I had become a clencher.
Clenching and grinding, known officially as bruxism, is an often-involuntary response to stress that can happen during the waking hours, but also, unfairly, while you’re sleeping. It’s existed forever (even the Bible mentions gnashing of teeth), but at the height of the pandemic, the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute conducted a poll that showed that 71 per cent of dentists surveyed reported an increase in teeth grinding and clenching – and an increase in cracked teeth as a result.
Likewise, I was finding that my jaw, specifically the masseter muscle (which runs along the side of your face), was absolutely aching by the end of the workday. I was “enjoying” a relatively low-key lockdown, I hadn’t been put on furlough, my husband and I were getting along well despite cramped quarters, and I was in the best shape of my life (thanks to the two-a-days that I started because of the lack of anything else to do). But my jaw seemed to be holding all the tension in my body.
When I mentioned my newfound stress hobby to my sister, a paediatrician, she said something that wormed its way into my brain: “Oh ya,” she drawled, “once you start clenching, you never stop.” Cool.
Two-plus years later, I have found that clenching ebbs and flows with stressors in my life. “Stress is a huge factor,” says Dr Hannah Douglas, a London-based chiropractor. “People see an increase in clenching especially when they’re sleeping, it’s the body’s way of self-soothing.”
“The more you clench, the more you grind, the more you use the muscle, the stronger it gets. You get stuck in this continual path”
Unfortunately, this helpful pastime does little to sooth, and over time can have full-body consequences. “Research shows that how you move your jaw links into way more than just the jaw itself,” Dr Douglas says. From the fascia in your face all the way up to the cranial bones and down to the pelvis, clenching adds stress to the body.
And why, as my sister told me, does it never stop? “It’s a positive feedback loop,” Dr Douglas says. “The more you clench, the more you grind, the muscles get activated, the more you use the muscle, the stronger it gets. You get stuck in this continual path.” Fantastic.
And there’s more. “Cortisol [the stress hormone] is an aging factor,” says Mr Amar Suchde, a cosmetic practitioner at AMS Aesthetics on Harley Street in London. He noticed more people coming to him for Botox injections in their jaws after lockdowns lifted. The stress of the pandemic was locking jaws and causing ageing in one fell swoop. “If you’re more stressed, you tend to have more tension in your chin, you use your masseter muscles a lot more, which causes tension in the forehead,” he says. So, in addition to headaches and cracked teeth, it turns out that clenching can also be ageing.
“Your body is producing excess free radicals,” Suchde says. It is a process known as oxidative stress. An injection of Botulism toxin into the masseter muscle will help to stop your muscle from working quite so hard, which will ease the pressure from clenching. Douglas suggests this could help break the feedback loop, and Suchde echoes this. He explains that you will need to come back for multiple treatments (each injection can last typically from three to five months), but that after a few treatments, the effects are longer lasting.
Unfortunately, Botox comes with a hefty price tag, especially if you’re injecting it into your jaw, because more units are needed to dull your masseter than to smooth the thin sheet of muscle on your forehead. It also takes longer to kick in than purely aesthetic Botox – three to four weeks versus one week, respectively. But Suchde argues that it can absolutely be worth the price if it gives you relief.
“While it’s bizarre to have someone else’s hands in your mouth, it’s very effective”
For those who might think it’s odd to see someone who deals with aesthetics for a problem that feels distinctly not aesthetic, Suchde disagrees. “Practitioners manipulate muscle and replenish deep fat compartments,” he says. “We’ve always done medical treatments, so this is no different. We’re just mixing medical with art.”
If you don’t fancy turning to the needle in order to solve your jaw issues, you could (as I did) visit a facialist, such as Ms Katie England, who is currently in residence in The Nomad in London. She performs a facial, in which she inserts her fingers into your mouth and massages your masseter from the inside. Aside from emerging from her studio looking like a dewy baby (a very good thing), I felt something I hadn’t felt in months – relief.
England works on the lymphatic system first, then moves on to relaxing the muscles around the mouth, stretching and probing the buccal (connects to the lips) and masseter muscles until, as she says, they “melt into butter”. While it’s indeed bizarre to have someone else’s hands in your mouth, thanks to the luxurious set up and her, frankly, magical hands, it’s very effective.
Of course, the other, perhaps obvious, solution here is to address the symptoms of stress and anxiety head on by seeing a therapist or otherwise working on your mental health. But if you need some relief now, Dr Douglas recommends seeing someone such as a chiropractor who can do some body work, moving your body regularly and strengthening your neck and back. You can also simply push your tongue onto the roof of your mouth, which makes it impossible to clench – effective if you have an awareness of the clenching.
However you choose to address your jaw pain, do it quick. I live in fear of finding out that I’ve cracked my teeth due to this dumb new habit. Unfortunately, there’s no failsafe “cure” for bruxism, which means facials, Botox and visiting a chiropractor may or may not solve the issue for you. But it’s absolutely worth giving all of these things (and perhaps a dose of therapy) a go. They’re our best bet to keep our teeth in our heads where they belong.