Sunday, July 5, 2009

Do You Grind Your Teeth At Night?

By Wesley Getert

If you are one of those people that wakes up in the morning with a sore jaw or maybe a headache, you could suffer from something called bruxism. Bruxism means that you have a habit of grinding your teeth and many people do it in their sleep and never even know they are grinding. This habit is obviously very bad for your teeth and it is a hard one to find a cure for because you might be doing it and not even be aware of it.

One of the causes of bruxism is thought to be stress but there could be many other reasons as well. Whether it is stress or something else, it is extremely difficult to break a habit that you dont even know you are doing. So many people suffer from a mild case of bruxism that it is never looked into unless their dentist notices.

If you do have a teeth grinding habit, your dentist will see the telltale signs of it and probably recommend a mouth guard. You will then be faced with a dilemma of whether to take his advice and pay for something that is not going to cure the problem. A mouth guard may work great for protecting your teeth but it is not going to do a thing for correcting it. Finding a cure for your teeth grinding would be a preferable path if you can discover the cause.

Most people suffer from bruxism because of stress and that is the first place to start looking when you set out to cure it. However, stress is not always the main component and many people grind their teeth that are not stressed at all. This is what makes bruxism very hard to cure: the fact that in one person it may be stress and in another person it may be stress combined with some other factor or maybe not stress at all.

If you can find the reason for your stress and eliminate it, you might be able to curb your teeth grinding. If you cant, you are left with getting a mouth guard to wear at night. This will not solve the problem but just help stop the damage your grinding might have on your teeth. Your dentist should be able to fit you with a custom nighttime mouth guard made especially for your teeth. Another course of action is to read some books written on the subject that you will be able to find at the library.

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