X Tips to Prevent Grinding and Clenching Teeth
A condition called bruxism makes you grind, clench and gnash your teeth unconsciously when sleeping or awake without realizing it is a medical or a dental problem. Medical professionals think sleep bruxism is a movement disorder occurring when sleeping, and if you are affected by this condition, you will likely have other sleep disorders like sleep apnea.
Mild bruxism does not require treatment in many cases. However, if you are affected by severe bruxism and have frequent episodes, the problem might lead to damaged teeth, headaches, and jaw disorders. In addition, if you have sleep bruxism, you may only become aware of it once complications develop, making it essential to know the signs and symptoms of this condition and seek regular dental care.
Bruxism Symptoms
If you grind and clench your teeth when sleeping, you will have the following signs and symptoms:
- You might grind and clench your teeth loudly to wake up your bed partner.
- Your teeth may become flattened, fractured, chipped or loose.
- You have enamel erosion exposing the dentin besides jaw, neck, and facial pain and soreness.
- You might have increased sensitivity and tooth pain besides tired or tight jaw muscles or a locked jaw.
- Bruxism can also cause sleep disruption.
If you experience the symptoms mentioned above, you must see your doctor or dentist to determine what is wrong with your teeth and jaw.
Causes of Bruxism
The medical fraternity does not identify the precise causes of bruxism, which might be due to physical, psychological, and genetic factors. For example, emotions like anxiety, stress, frustration, and tension might cause awake bruxism, while sleep bruxism might be an activity associated with arousals when sleeping.
Risk Factors of Bruxism
Some risk factors such as stress, age, personality type, medications or substances, family history of bruxism, and other medical problems such as epilepsy, night terrors, sleep apnea and ADHD are all risk factors of bruxism.
Bruxism Complications
Bruxism doesn’t cause severe complications in most cases, but the condition can result in damage to your teeth and restorations, crowns, and jaw, tension-type headaches, severe facial and jaw pain, and TMJ disorders making it essential for you to look for remedies like a mouth guard for grinding teeth offered by many dentists to deal with bruxism.
Treatment for Bruxism
In many cases, bruxism doesn’t require treatment because children affected by the problem outgrow bruxism, and many adults who are not affected by severe bruxism need therapy. However, if you have a severe problem with this condition, you can discuss it with your doctor or dentist, who may offer you medicines and night guards to prevent additional tooth damage and relieve jaw discomfort.
If you discuss the problem with your dentist, they will likely recommend a mouth guard for sleeping fabricated to keep your teeth separate when sleeping to prevent damage from grinding and clenching. You may also need to reshape your teeth’ chewing surfaces if bruxism has damaged your ability to chew correctly.
Besides the above, the following tips help prevent grinding and Clenching teeth and reduce damage to your teeth needing expensive treatments. Some helpful tips that can assist in preventing teeth grinding are mentioned below for your reference.
- Relaxing Exercises: Breathing exercises and yoga can activate your parasympathetic nervous system and relax your muscles naturally.
- Massaging Temples and Jaws: jaw and temple massages in circular motions help alleviate jaw pain by relaxing them.
- Avoid Anxiety Inducing Beverages: drinks with caffeine can trigger fight or flight responses. The beverages can intensify your anxiety to keep your muscles tense and cause you to grind your teeth so
- Muscle Relaxation: you can relax your muscles in a hot bath before bed to relieve fatigue and stress. Hot water also helps relieve muscle tension by expanding your blood vessels and increasing blood flow to the sore areas of your jaw.
- Warm Tea over Coffee: consider a couple of warm tea over coffee because it is rich in essential nutrients that enhance your focus to flush toxins out of your body.
- Managing Stress: stress management is the best thing you can give your body. Your brain releases stress hormones, and the damaging effects affect your entire body. When you practice stress management, you remain focused on managing your emotions using non-demanding ways.
- Avoid Mouth-Related Habits: if you are accustomed to biting pens, pencils, fingernails, et cetera, you can incur damage to your teeth over time. Therefore you must try to overcome these harmful habits to prevent tooth damage.
- Avoid Chewing gum: you might not consider chewing gum harmful for your condition, but your chances of developing bruxism increase significantly with the constant overuse of your jaw muscles. Therefore you must avoid chewing gum and other such foods to prevent a damaging habit from overcoming you.
- Manage Stress by Discussions: sharing your concerns with family and friends is an excellent way of relieving stress because they might provide some excellent tips that you find beneficial.
- Occlusal Appliances: do not avoid visits to the dentist providing you with a mouth guard in Raritan, NJ, customized for your mouth that helps protect your teeth from the detrimental effects of bruxism.
If you are confronting the challenge of grinding and clenching your teeth, Koren Family Dental has an excellent remedy for you in Raritan because they provide customized occlusal Appliances to help you overcome the problem. Kindly arrange an appointment with them for a consultation to receive your customized occlusal device in a couple of weeks to overcome the teeth grinding and Clenching.