How to Stop Teeth Grinding

The act of grinding or clenching your teeth together is referred to as bruxism. Although some people think of bruxism as a night occurrence, you can clench or grind your teeth day and night without realizing you have the problem. Grinding is the movement of your top and bottom teeth over each other back and forth, and clenching is when you keep your lower and upper teeth together in a tight hold. Teeth grinding and clenching is caused by various factors, including how much stress you're under, the alignment of your teeth and how well you sleep.

Grinding and clenching your teeth causes various symptoms to appear. Your jaw might be sore, you can experience difficulty eating and sleeping, and you might experience earaches. Of particular concern is the damage you're causing to your teeth. The repetitive motions wear down your teeth over time, causing stress cracks, breaks and damage to any fillings or other existing dental work. The more severe your bruxism is, the quicker you'll damage your teeth. If you don't stop grinding your teeth, you can develop temporomandibular joint problems, known collectively as TMJ. Symptoms of TMJ include clicking or popping sounds when you open or close your mouth, face pain, difficulty moving your jaw and difficulty eating.

If you're grinding or clenching your teeth, try relaxing before bed and massaging your face and jaw muscles. Reducing tension and daily stress can help stop bruxism. Changing your daytime habits can help ease unconscious night grinding.

Mouth guards, also called splints, can help ease night grinding and clenching. The guards fit over your top or bottom teeth and are used while you're sleeping. Splints come in various designs, such as full top guards or one that just goes over your front teeth, and you can get a custom splint from your dentist. Splints are sold at most local pharmacies but may be thicker and more uncomfortable than a custom appliance. However, you may want to try an over-the-counter splint before getting a custom one made to make sure you can sleep with an appliance in your mouth.

A more drastic approach for long-time teeth grinders is a surgical readjustment of the bite by an oral surgeon. Changing your existing bite may stop your grinding, especially if your upper and lower teeth meet evenly, but you should try alternate methods before having surgery. If you don't reduce your grinding and clenching prior to surgery, the problem may reappear later on in your life.

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