During a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Demi Moore got candid about her well-being. “Stress sheared off my front teeth,” she said, sharing that she had lost not one but both of her front teeth within the past year, citing stress as the cause, Page Six reports.
“I sheared off my front teeth. I’d love to say it was skateboarding or something really kind of cool, but I think it’s something that’s important to share,” Moore said, “because I think it’s literally, probably after heart disease, one of the biggest killers in America, which is stress.”
Page Six reached out to Dr. Gary Glassman, a dentist who specializes in endodontics, to get a medical opinion on whether stress can make your teeth fall out. Glassman says that stress can be a factor in tooth loss, but it’s usually not the sole cause.
Stress can be dangerous for dental health for two reasons though, according to Glassman. The first, Glassman says, is that stress is ,“the No. 1 reason why people grind their teeth.” According to Glassman teeth grinding can cause “a lot of problems”, including increased risk of tooth loss. The second problem posed by high stress and anxiety is that changes in mood can make people forget about basic dental hygiene such as brushing and flossing, Glassman says.
Demi Moore might not have lost her two front teeth entirely due to stress, but her candor may help shed light on how high stress affects our health.
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Originally published at medium.com