Grinding and Gnashing of Teeth

It is official, as a nation, there is more grinding and gnashing of teeth going on…the posh term for it is bruxing.  We know everyone is more stressed…the economy, the  threat of job loss, even our spouses, our teeth are bearing the brunt of it

Do any of these describe you?

• Do your jaw muscles ache in the morning?
• Do you have difficulty in eating, first thing?
• Do your teeth show premature wear? Teeth appear flatter, shorter
• Do you suffer from frequent headaches or facial pain?
• Do you suffer from repeated earaches?
• Has your  partner ever complained about you making strange grinding noises in your sleep?

If this describes you, then here are some tips to help prevent it

1. If you are a true bruxist, you cannot prevent it.  It is a reflex action, like breathing so the aim in treatment is to protect the teeth

2.The commonest treatment is an occlusal splint.

There are different designs, different names but in essence your dentist makes a custom plastic gaurd to protect your teeth.  You grind the plastic v/s your teeth so protecting them.  I prefer a hard splint, this is generally more expensive but there is more involved as the dentist uses it to create an even bite which helps stabilise things

3.Occlusal Equilibriation

This basically means adjusting your bite so the teeth meet evenly.  It may involve your dentist triming away some of the surface enamel or the opposite, adding material to change the shape of hte teeth.  often after providing veneers for patients, the  biggest thanks is finding they no longer suffer from headaches because as part of the treatment I can give them a better bite.  Either way,, the aim is to distribute the forces evenly over all your  teeth

4. Botox! We are now experimenting with using Botox to help the muscles relax.  Botox has been used for many years on medical conditions eg Cerebral Palsy where the muscles go into spasm. It does not change your appearance in any way

4 Behaviour changes…ie relax.  This is often the most difficult but stress does make the situation worse!