5 Key Questions About Teeth Grinding
What is it?
Bruxism is the clinical/scientific name for teeth grinding and it can simply be defined as the action in which a person grinds (rubs) or clenches his/her teeth continuously at any time of the day but mostly at night during sleeping periods when the person is unconscious/unaware of what his/her is doing. As a matter of fact Bruxism creates a scenario of almost the same gravity as snoring. Teeth grinding has now been regarded as a dental problem because it damages your teeth and worse still causes damage to your facial/jaw bones and muscles and also your face.
Causes:
There appears to be a lot of supposed causes of Bruxism however dentists seem to single out the following as key causal factors in the development of teeth grinding:
• Stress
• Frustration
• Unexpressed anger
• Aggressive personality
• Wrong teeth alignment
Who does it affect?
Teeth grinding in reality can affect anybody young and old, male or female but is most common in 25-44 year olds. Its occurrence in children usually gives parents sleepless nights. Even though it is really not considered a big problem with children as it is for adults, since they usually outgrow the problem which most often than not is a habit for them, taking the child to see a dentist is still a very good idea.
Symptoms:
You can tell if you are suffering from teeth grinding if:
• your teeth are painful in the morning
• you jaw hurts in the morning
• you feel pain around the upper jaw below the temples while eating
• your teeth a flat and worn away
• you have unexplained chips on your teeth
• your teeth are sensitive to cold and citrus
• you have constant headaches
• you constantly wake up during the night.
Any of these symptoms could be a signal of the effects of Bruxism and checking with a dentist is the way to go.
Effects:
Bruxism can have the following undesirable (not restricted to these by any means) effects:
• Damage to your dentures and this is mostly displayed by a faster than normal wearing down of your teeth.
• Receding of the gum thereby causing non-alignment of the teeth and leading to more teeth grinding.
• Hurting jaw especially in mornings
• Severe headaches
• Lose of ability to smile i.e. your facial muscles have become so hardened it is difficult to relax them.
• And ultimately it can destroy or severely damage social relations especially with your partner because you disturb their sleep mostly but also with others who finding it difficult to understand why you don’t have a smile.
So, if it so happens that you suffer from Bruxism, cheer-up, you don’t need to be shy or afraid see a dentist immediately as it is treatable by both natural and scientific means.
DENTAL HEALTH CARE 