What To Do About Your Teeth Grinding

Many people clench their jaw and grind or gnash their teeth, often without realizing it. Some people learn they suffer from sleep bruxism — the name for that condition — only after being told by a sleeping partner or after describing teeth, jaw, face, and neck-related symptoms to their doctor or dentist. The consequences of sleep bruxism can be serious for your health, but can be prevented.

What are the signs of sleep bruxism?

There are four common indications that you may have the habit of clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth. Those symptoms are: unexplained toothaches, headaches focused in your temples and that may feel like an earache, a popping or clicking sound in your jaw, and pain or limited range of motion in your jaw.

If you continue to clench your jaw as you sleep, teeth grinding in NE Calgary can cause damage to your teeth and dental work that can eventually lead to the loss of teeth, fillings, and crowns.

What causes sleep bruxism?

The most common type of bruxism is sleep bruxism, but clenching and grinding can occur while you’re awake as well. Bruxism can produce extremely high pressure on your teeth that can reach as much as 1,000 pounds per square inch.  

Sleep bruxism is often associated with psychological factors such as stress and anxiety, as well as genetic factors. Risk factors for bruxism include drinking alcohol, smoking, consuming caffeine, sleep apnea and snoring, and fatigue. Approximately 14% of children — and 8% of adults — experience the condition sleep bruxism.

How to stop grinding your teeth

If you suspect that you clench your jaw and grind your teeth as you sleep, you should arrange an appointment with your orthodontist in NE Calgary to discuss the implications of your sleep bruxism on your teeth and health. Your dentist will perform a careful examination of your teeth and dental work to determine if you have suffered any damage as a result of your sleep bruxism and to determine appropriate interventions.

Some people find that teeth grinding in Calgary can be stopped by simple changes to your diet, particularly as it relates to caffeine and other stimulants. If your bruxism is stress-related, your dentist may recommend relaxation techniques to ease tension in your jaw and body, generally, and to help counteract the negative physical implications of stress.

Further interventions to prevent you from clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth can be as simple as wearing a mouthguard at night. A dentist near you will take images and impressions to create a customized mouth guard for you to wear at night. That mouthguard will impose a barrier between the surfaces of your teeth to prevent damage to those biting surfaces and dental work, and will help ease the pressure imposed on and by your jaw.  

Wearing a nightguard is often enough to prevent you from clenching your jaw and grinding your teeth, and to resolve the symptoms of your sleep bruxism. If the symptoms persist even after wearing a night guard for a time, your dentist may recommend that adjustments be made to the biting surfaces of your teeth to alter how they come into contact with each other. If a combination of a mouthguard and adjustments to the biting surfaces of your teeth are not effective, there are surgical options to alter the alignment of your jaw to prevent the negative consequences of sleep bruxism.

Your dentist’s concerns about your teeth extend far beyond cavities and plaque. Your dentist in Calgary will also constantly be on the lookout for any general health-related implications of your teeth condition — including sleep bruxism. Be sure always to tell your dentist about symptoms affecting your teeth, jaw, face, neck, and head. Your dentist can help resolve issues like teeth grinding in Calgary as easily as providing a custom mouthguard.