Bruxism

Watch video only
When people are stressed, they sometimes clench their jaw and grind their teeth, which is called bruxism, and this can happen day or night, sometimes lasting a few days, and other times going on for months, and it’s usually that long-term grinding that can really cause problems.
Grinding the top and bottom teeth together can lead to something called dental abfraction—a loss of tooth structure, and dental attrition, which is when the biting surfaces of teeth get flattened out.
Eventually this can wear-away the protective outer surface of the tooth—the enamel, to reveal the much more sensitive dentin below, resulting in tooth hypersensitivity and an increased risk of cavities.
When it’s severe, bruxism can even cause a tooth fracture, tooth loosening, and even the loss of teeth, as well as damage any existing dental work like crowns and fillings.
Occasionally, people with bruxism bite their tongue as well, which can lead to crenated or scalloped tongue—tooth shaped indentations on the tongue, and they sometimes they have canker sores from chewing their lips and inner cheeks.
Bruxism can also lead to temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which involves the muscles that help with chewing—the temporalis, masseter, and pterygoid muscles.
All three of these work together to move the mandible, or the jawbone. Clenching these muscles over and over can be tiring and painful especially in the preauricular area, which is right in front of the ear and cause headaches around the temples of the head.
Bruxism can also lead to inflammation of the periodontal ligaments, which are the tiny ligaments that attach each tooth to the bony socket that they are nestled in, making chewing quite painful.
Finally, over time, from the repeated clenching, chewing muscles can hypertrophy or grow, which only worsens the grinding action by making it more powerful and therefore more painful.
Bruxism is an unconscious behavior, and when it happens at night, it’s called “sleep bruxism” or “nocturnal bruxism”. Typically, sleep bruxism is noticed by family or friends, who hear the clicking and grinding sounds that the person makes as they grind their teeth and move their jaw while sleeping.
Night bruxism can leave a person feeling a dull, persistent headache and sore jaws when they wake up, both of which might slowly improve throughout the day.
For awake or “diurnal” bruxism, there are a couple key differences. First, people don’t feel jaw pain upon waking, but instead their pain worsens throughout the day.
Second, they don’t usually make grinding and clicking noises like in sleep bruxism. And third, awake bruxism is more strongly associated with stress, and is often accompanied by other behaviors like biting the inner cheeks and nails.
Bruxism is caused by a variety of things. First, some evidence points to it being caused by improperly aligned teeth, which results in irregular contact between the upper and lower teeth.
Other clues point to other cause like stress, dehydration, medication side effects, and use of recreational drugs like such as MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy.
Treatment for bruxism can take a lot of forms. For awake bruxism, one therapy involves behavior modification to help someone gain conscious control over the behavior.
For example, someone might learn to notice when they are clenching their jaw, and then intervene by placing the tip of their tongue between their top and bottom teeth as a reminder to unclench.
For sleep bruxism, treatments usually focus on minimizing the damage that clenching and grinding can have on the teeth and the jaw.
Mouth guards, occlusal splints, and removable dental plates are worn at night and help to keep the top and bottom teeth separated.
In more serious cases, muscle relaxants and even oral-surgery might be needed to help reduce and repair the damage from bruxism.
There are also a number of lifestyle modifications that can help as well, like avoiding certain things in the evening, such as stimulants like caffeine and nicotine, and depressants, like alcohol, all of which can help reduce bruxism.
If the cause is thought to be stress-related, than exercising and practicing relaxation techniques might help. Finally, people with bruxism should try to avoid unnecessary chewing, which means not chewing on pens and pencils or even gum.
Okay, as a quick recap, bruxism can happen when asleep or awake, and it’s a condition where individuals grind their teeth and clench their jaw, which results in jaw pain, headaches, and tooth hypersensitivity.
Thanks for watching, you can help support us by donating on patreon, or subscribing to our channel, or telling your friends about us on social media.