Clenching Teeth at Night: Cause and Remedy

If you thought snoring was the worst type of sleep disorder, wait till you hear the noise clenching teeth at night can generate. In fact, the sound can be loud enough to wake up the person sharing the bed! Worst still, the noise generator is blissfully unaware of the cacophony he or she is creating.

What many may not know is that teeth clenching, known medically as bruxism, is a parafunctional activity that happens without any apparent intention or prior awareness. Done involuntarily, bruxism is about gnashing one set of teeth against the other using considerable amount of pressure. The pressure could be high enough to cause damage to the teeth and gums and result in serious pain of the head, ear, jaw and face.

Clenching teeth at night is more common than teeth grinding during the day. This problem can affect men, women and children, though with children teeth clenching is temporary that subside as the child grows older.

Doctors have two opinions about what causes teeth grinding. While physicians blame stress, suppressed anger, pent-up anxiety and frustrations, etc for causing teeth clenching, dentists believe that bruxism has direct association with misalignment of teeth or malocclusion.

Some co-existing medical conditions like Huntington’s or Parkinson’s disease or sleep disorders like sleep apnea and snoring may also cause clenching teeth at night. Use of certain antidepressants as well as disturbed sleep cycles could be responsible for teeth clenching.

Clenching teeth at night: the after-effects of bruxism symptoms

All the bruxism symptoms become apparent when they show up as after-effects of clenching teeth at night. These include increased tooth sensitivity, flattened teeth with chipped corners, damaged gums, indentations on the tongue, pain in the jaw, ear and face.

How to prevent teeth grinding?

The most effective way to prevent teeth grinding is to first become aware of what causes teeth grinding and prevent such causes from taking over your life. It is now known that stress is the single most important reason for most people to indulge in clenching teeth at night. If that be so, then you need to take steps to reduce stress and calm the mind. Yoga, deep breathing, meditation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are some of the proven ways to reduce stress.

Many of these techniques calm the mind or add rationality to the thinking process, thereby reducing stress and anxiety.

If you become aware which of the current medication could be causing teeth grinding, you could request your doctor for a change of prescription in order to stop teeth grinding. You might also get good results by treating any underlying medical condition like sleep apnea, etc if the cause is related to such disorders.

Many sufferers have got good results by wearing bite plates to stop teeth grinding. These devices prevent the sets of teeth from coming into physical contact with each other during sleep, thereby prevent teeth grinding.

As far as self-help is concerned, you could change your diet to eating softer and better cooked foods; avoid chewing gums and large yawns to keep your jaw muscles more relaxed.

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