FAQ on Tooth grinding
If you wake up with dull headaches or vise-like pain, you may be one of many people who grind their teeth at night. Many people are unaware they even have the disorder (called bruxism) because it often occurs at night during sleep. Your dentist can usually detect the telltale signs of wear on your teeth.
Problems Caused by Bruxism
Bruxism can either directly or indirectly cause many problems. Grinding can cause teeth to become painful or loose. Patients can literally grind away parts of their teeth, leaving them with worn surfaces or fractured enamel.
Causes of Bruxism
More research is needed to determine the exact cause of bruxism, but it is thought that both emotional and physical factors are involved. Some of the contributing factors may be stress or sleep disorders, an abnormal bite or crooked or missing teeth.
Treatment of Bruxism
There are a number of ways to treat bruxism. Your dentist will determine which single treatment or combination of treatments is right for you. When stress is the major cause of bruxism, people need to find ways to relax. People who have difficulty handling stress may need to seek counselling or the dentist may prescribe muscle relaxants to relax jaw muscles. To help alleviate muscle pain, physical therapy may be needed.
The following tips can be helpful to prevent grinding:
To help break the habit, place reminders around the house, or try repeating phrases that help you relax.
To help relax clenching muscles, apply a warm wash cloth to the side of your face.
To relieve stress, cut down on caffeine, take warm baths and ease up on yourself.
Because it is thought that an abnormal bite may predispose a person to grinding, treatment may involve removing the “high spots” of a tooth. Another treatment involves wearing a plastic mouth guard at night to prevent tooth grionding. A bite plate is a removable plastic device which prevents teeth from coming together. In some cases , such as with an overbite, it may eventually improve the bite. A method used to treat the damage caused by more serious cases of grinding involves reshaping or reconstruction of the biting surfaces with crowns or inlays.
Grinding is a common occurance among many people at some time or another. If you develop facial pain, fatigue or other problems, treatment may be needed. Talk with your dentist if you suspect that you are grinding your teeth. Dr. Degel will help relieve you from the daily grind of bruxism.
– 3:10PMI bumped into loads of friends today. This morning while parking my car for my dentist appointment, the striking yellow coloured Citroen driven by Khai Fei was behind me. He told me that he’s heading towards the bank in sign language.
Lei Kuan is working in the dental clinic that I’ve been going to ever since I was a kid. She was my former high school classmate and also my editor when I was the Chief editor of our class’s editorial team. The ever-capable Lei Kuan made a big impact on our publication. Furthermore, she’s much better looking now with big eyes, fair skin and great smile!
I had 3 of my chipped tooth fixed. It looks much better now except for a couple of white patches. Furthermore, I had a night guard made to stop my teeth from being flattening by bruxism (teeth grinding).
While having seafood beef noodles for lunch at OUG, I bumped into Weng Yew, another of my former high school classmates. He was clad in office attire and apparently he just had a job interview. We were updating each other on our former classmates namely what are they doing now and where are they now. The conversation lasted for 10 minutes. Few moments later, babysun came over to my table. Apparently she was sitting opposite me ever since I arrived!
– 3:07PM