Clenching Your Teeth: Bruxism. Are There Solutions?
Some patients come to the practice because they notice sensitivity in their teeth. One of the most frequent causes is the wear that bruxism produces in the teeth. There are patients who aren’t aware that they clench their teeth involuntarily, while others realise it in periods of stress or anxiety.
What is bruxism?
Bruxism is a habit that consists of clenching the teeth involuntarily during the day or at night. The most frequent is at night, so that we clench the teeth and the muscles we use to chew contract, and it’s harder to control because it happens unconsciously.
Bruxism: Symptoms
As we’ve explained, many patients suffer from bruxism unconsciously, so they aren’t able to recognise that they have it. We’re going to explain some of the symptoms that may make us think that we have bruxism:
-Wear of the teeth that can cause us dental sensitivity.
-Mobility in the teeth with which we’ve clenched, as they’ll gradually loosen.
-Overload and tension in the muscles of the face.
-Pain in the ear area, since that’s where the temporomandibular joint or TMJ is located.
-Locking of the jaw when forcing the mouth open.
-Headaches or neck pain.
Although these symptoms are general, there are patients who suffer from bruxism and don’t generate symptoms, so the habit goes unnoticed for a long time.
Bruxism in children
It’s common to see at the dental clinic patients who come with their children because they hear them clenching their teeth at night. Bruxism is more frequent in children than we think. It usually occurs in children from 6 to 10 years old, especially during the period when the milk teeth fall out and the permanent teeth appear. Teething may therefore be a cause of its appearance, but it isn’t the only one.
Other causes that can make children suffer from bruxism will be emotional causes such as stress or anxiety that can make children, just like adults, clench at certain moments of their life. It can also be due to physical causes such as malocclusion (when children don’t bite well) or the presence of intestinal parasites that can generate nervousness in children (although this cause hasn’t been proven).
The analysis of the possible causes behind bruxism is key to being able to treat the problem. In this sense, in the vast majority of cases, bruxism is a temporary period that usually disappears when the cause behind it is eliminated or reduced, especially if it’s stress or emotional anxiety.
Bruxism: Consequences
Clenching the teeth for a period of time can generate different problems for us; the most frequent is the wear of the teeth, since, as we’ve explained above, there are many patients who don’t realise they do it, especially in cases where the bruxism is nocturnal. As a consequence the teeth gradually wear down, coming to have sensitivity in some of them.
Another consequence may be that, by clenching the teeth, they can loosen, since they’re subjected to a pressure greater than they’re able to withstand, possibly even ending up losing them.
Finally, when grinding the teeth it’s necessary to contract all the musculature, so patients over time start to overload the facial and neck muscles, referring pain in the area of the temporomandibular joint or TMJ or in the neck area.
Bruxism: Solutions
Finally, we’ll talk about the treatment or the treatments most used to treat patients with bruxism. As we’ve indicated, the most important thing is to analyse the cause that produces it so that the treatment is as effective as possible.
First, if the patient is suffering some episode of stress or anxiety which, as we’ve indicated, generates tension in the jaw, it will be necessary for the patient to be aware and not clench the teeth during the day, learning to leave the jaw relaxed. It’s also advisable to relieve tension in general by doing sport or carrying out techniques to relax the body’s musculature to reduce and eliminate the nerves, the stress and the anxiety.
In parallel it will be necessary to use some type of protector so that when the patient clenches unconsciously the teeth are protected and don’t keep wearing down. The most used appliance will be the Night Guard or Mouth Guard, which consists of an appliance made to measure for our teeth that rests on the maxilla or the mandible and that’s made of hard resin to be able to protect them. From the moment it starts being used it eliminates the jaw, head or ear pain and the patient will be able to wear it at night and during the day if necessary. It has to be remembered that the night guard doesn’t eliminate the bruxism, but it does eliminate our symptoms immediately.
From the Clínica Dental Doctores Tarazona we hope to have resolved your doubts about bruxism, but if you have any more doubts or want more information about how to find a solution to bruxism don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll answer them as soon as possible.
