Sleep bruxism is teeth grinding during sleep, causing headaches, jaw pain, and tooth damage. Stress, misaligned teeth, smoking, alcohol, and caffeine may be causes. Mouthguards and stress reduction techniques can help, but anti-anxiety medication is not effective. Parents should discuss symptoms with a doctor if present in children.
Sleep bruxism is when someone grinds, grinds, or clenches their teeth while sleeping. It is the third most common sleep disorder after sleep talking and snoring. Sufferers of sleep bruxism often wake up with a headache or pain in the jaw, ear or face. Other symptoms include chewed tissue inside the cheek, indentations on the tongue, damaged teeth, earaches and tooth sensitivity. Sleep bruxism doesn’t always occur in isolation, and sleep studies have shown that those living with the disorder may also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea or pauses in breathing during sleep.
Experts aren’t clear on what specifically causes sleep bruxism, but many believe stress and anxiety are the main culprits, along with misalignment of the upper and lower teeth, smoking, alcohol and caffeine. If the condition is left untreated, it can eventually lead to tooth wear, muscle strain, muscle spasm, and stress on the temporomandibular joint. In extreme cases, jaw surgery may be required.
Generally occurring during the early stages of sleep, sleep bruxism interrupts a person’s sleep. The condition can also cause strained relationships with those in the sufferer’s immediate vicinity. The noise resulting from teeth grinding during nocturnal bruxism has been described as “like nails on a blackboard”.
Sufferers of this condition have tried remedies such as exercise, yoga, hypnotherapy and acupuncture, with varying degrees of success. Reducing daytime stress, getting an adequate amount of sleep at night, and sticking to a relaxing nighttime routine can also help. Experts caution that anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications generally aren’t effective at reducing grinding. Dentists often recommend that a person suffering from sleep bruxism use a mouthguard that does not prevent the user from grinding or clenching the teeth, but protects the teeth from further damage. When the condition is present in children, parents should discuss the symptoms of sleep bruxism with a doctor.
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