You wake up in the morning and feel restlessness, jaw pain, headache. Does this sound familiar?
If yes, you might be grinding your teeth in sleep, called Bruxism.
What is Bruxism?
Bruxism is a condition in which you may unconsciously grind or clench your teeth during the day or at night.
Why does one grind teeth?
Teeth grinding over a long period of time causes harm to your teeth. The base of treating bruxism lies in knowing the cause of it.
Typically teeth grinding causes include :
- Stress and Anxiety
- Uneven or misplaced bite
- Missing, broken teeth
- Sleep problems like sleep apnea
What symptoms may you experience due to bruxism?
Following symptoms may be experienced by you if you grind your teeth :
- Continuous dull headache
- Grinding noises heard by others
- Sore jaw
- Extensive tooth wear
- Sensitive teeth
How can you identify that you are grinding your teeth?
It is difficult to identify teeth grinding on your own. But by paying attention to symptoms you can identify and sort out the cause of it.
The person sleeping next to you will hear grinding noises, you may experience a dull persistent headache upon waking up. If you experience any of the above, do visit your dentist to confirm the bruxism habit.
Why is Bruxism bad for your teeth?
Naturally, opposing teeth are not meant to touch each other except while swallowing. Constant contact leads to severe attrition of teeth. The outermost toughest layer, enamel attrides and the sensitive layer, dentin is exposed. Untreated bruxism leads to exposure of pulp tissue.
Muscles overwork during teeth grinding which leads to their fatigue.
Hence, timely treatment for bruxism is important.
How can you stop teeth grinding?
Teeth grinding is multifactorial and can be a product of multiple issues. It becomes essential to understand and eliminate the causes one by one.
- Stress : finding the reason of cause, meditation and yoga can help relieve the stress
- Uneven bite : your dentist can correct your bite which will help stabilize the bite
- Disturbed sleep : avoid tobacco and caffeine products before sleeping
- Missing teeth : get your missing teeth replaced on time
Treating the cause of bruxism to treat teeth grinding is the ultimate goal but till then the dentist will give you a transparent removable night guard to wear. It is to be worn when you sleep so that the extra force due to grinding is borne by the night guard and not the teeth.
Bruxism can be silently affecting your teeth. Visit your dentist at Studio Dentale to know more about teeth grinding.
