Oral Smart

  The Coronavirus pandemic has led to an oral epidemic of sorts. For one, dental clinics had to be shut for months in fear of the pandemic. This resulted in people not being able to seek the oral care they needed. While a lot of dentists offered virtual consultations, they just weren’t as effective as clinic visits.  However, the lack of dental visit wasn’t the root cause of the oral epidemic, it was the stress brought on by the pandemic. During virtual and in-clinic, once clinics reopened, consultation dentists began to notice a lot of patients with the same oral problem, cracked teeth. Linking Coronavirus Pandemic to the Epidemic of Cracked Teeth In a New York Times article, Prosthodontist Tammy Chen highlighted that in times of stress, individuals tend to clench their jaws and grind their teeth unconsciously. All the stress brought on by the fear of the virus, the need for social distance and quarantine, the possibility of losing your job, amongst others led to many unconsciously ad