How Is Oral Biting a Form of Self-Mutilating Injury?
Biting of the oral mucosa would either be an acute or a chronic habit pattern in individuals, most often seen in younger children and adolescents. Either this habit would be developed early as a slow habit or suddenly because of pale imitation or out of stress, this can be considered as a form of self-inflicting behavior that can be detrimental to oneself. Oral habit patterns whether biting the oral mucosa or frictional issues that may be resulting from sharp teeth or persistent tongue biting or cheek biting habits would almost be more common than one thinks. Current global statistics stand at almost every thousand of every one million individuals being affected by such habit patterns globally. In general, females are more commonly affected by biting habits according to current dental research and prevalence rates globally in comparison to males. However, in children and young adolescents, noticing habits may develop often acutely either out of tension, stress, or even the same as attracting attention from parents or guardians or in other words self-mutilation acts that can create such habit patterns.
In these age groups, parental or guardian-based supervision is important to ensure that the child is not affected severely by such mutilation injuries and care should be taken to train the child or young adolescents to break the habit once they realize or they are made aware that these injuries would not only cause damage to the oral mucosal membranes or cavity, but it would also lead to non-healing scars or even erosion of the mucous membranes or bleeding from the oral sites. All these clinical symptoms would be often reported by the child who would be following either a conscious or unconscious habit pattern of biting the cheeks, tongue, or any oral tissues. When these symptoms are often ignored or parents may delay the treatment of such lesions, bleeding spots localized edema (swelling), or inflammatory tissues in oral areas, or at the site of trauma would lead to a vicious cycle of red and white oral lesions or even predispose the child to bacterial or fungal infections of the oral cavity, because the oral immunity at this trauma site would be considerably lowered. Hence attention should be paid to children or young adolescents who may be victims of their self-mutilation habits or injuries.
How Does the Behavior of Repeated Biting Differ Between Children and Adults?
Repeated biting is another condition that would either have a subconscious or unconscious mental habit pattern that the child or adolescent would have formed and that can lead them to suffer from acute or chronic oral abuse. For instance, pediatric patients who may be reporting thick or scarred skin to their dentist upon routine dental examination or check-up would be suffering from one or more of such mutilating habitual patterns with their oral mucosa. Persistent biting habits would cause the child clinical symptoms of oral pain, swelling, localized bleeding spots, or often stress as a result of the traumatic injury in the mucous membranes, causing difficulty focusing and difficulty in chewing, swallowing, or speaking. In adults, dental research highlights the condition commonly as a result of self-affliction or mutilation known as morsicatio buccarum (cheek biting) or, linguarum (tongue) or, labiorum (lips) based upon the injury site of the oral mucous membranes. Similarly, linea alba which is a harmless yet inflamed oral mucous condition of the cheeks manifesting as white striations or lines would also be a result of chronic biting forces.
Do Oral Self-Mutilation Injuries Have a Psychogenic Cause?
Habitual lip or even cheek biting would eventually initiate a chronic sequence or chain of infection within the individual's oral cavity. In the case of adults, cheek biting may often be an assault on the oral tissues, especially subconsciously during the night times as in bruxism, tooth clenching, or grinding habits. These kinds of chronic habits can be common in both adults as well as children. During a routine dental examination, the dentist can tell one whether one is a victim of parafunctional or chronic biting habits or if the gums and oral tissues are inflicted by any trauma or stress. In most cases, chronic biting is always inflicted unconsciously only and can be rather termed as a psychogenic habit that would be associated with an underlying emotional, mental, or psychological cause or reason or even be associated with a range of underlying emotions. Overall these chronic biting habits still would count as mutilation injuries only. A dentist can also refer or correlate with the physician or psychologist to determine the cause of stress or to relieve any possible psychogenic patterns.
What Are the Management Strategies of Oral Self-Mutilation Injuries?
One of the most common sites for self-mutilation injuries is with the upper or lower lip based on the nature of the individual's habit and the frequency of that habitual pattern. If one or one’s loved ones or children may be victims of unconscious or subconscious habits such as repeated biting with suspicion of repeated oral injuries, it is imperative that one approach a registered dental professional or dentist for thorough evaluation and also counseling on how to break these habit patterns.
Dentist may recommend either using mouth guards, splints, or habit-breaking appliances that can prevent the detrimental effects of biting forces at the area of trauma such as accelerating the healing of scar tissues, preventing edema and swelling at the site of injury, and also further recommend prophylactic or restorative modalities for dental or oral erosion, bleeding spots or denuded oral or gingival tissue.
Conclusion
To conclude, especially in children and young adolescents, self-mutilation injuries are more common and may often go unobserved or untreated because some children may not report the clinical symptoms of chronic biting habits, leading to a chain of oral infections that can be severe. This highlights the importance of routine dental checkups as well as encouraging a healthy rapport between the dentist or pediatric dentist and the child or the individuals afflicted by chronic biting habits or self-mutilation injuries. A dental surgeon can best explain what prophylactic, restorative, or functional treatments can be performed along with counseling and habit-breaking homeware appliances that like to be fabricated to counteract the detrimental cheek or lip or oral tissue stress or biting habits.
