Are you aware of what happens to your body when you sleep? Some of us, have sleeping conditions that may affect their sleeping behavior and one condition called “bruxism” seems common. Let’s talk about it in here.
What is Bruxism? Bruxism is excessive teeth grinding or jaw clenching. It can happen whether you are are asleep or awake that can lead to jaw disorders, damaged teeth and headaches.
As of today, the condition is still being studied to fully understand the root cause of it but right now, there are only minimal threats unless it is severe and is not expected to cause an emergency.
Bruxism is identified as a sleeping condition since it can happen during sleep and will continue to cause teeth grinding or jaw clenching after waking up.
Usually, when this happens, the affected person may not notice by themselves that they are grinding their teeth or clenching their jaw too hard.
This is why plenty of people go undiagnosed since they are not aware of the condition at all.
Diagnosis
Bruxism is usually diagnosed when other people other than the affected person notices the symptoms.
Sleep bruxism is mainly characterized by “rhythmic masticatory muscle activity” (RMMA) at a frequency of about once per second, and also with occasional tooth grinding.
Early diagnosis of bruxism is advantageous, but difficult. Early diagnosis can prevent damage that may be incurred and the detrimental effect on quality of life.
A diagnosis of bruxism is usually made clinically, and is mainly based on the person’s history related to bruxism such as reports of grinding noises and the presence of typical signs and symptoms.
This includes tooth mobility, tooth wear, masseteric hypertrophy, indentations on the tongue, hypersensitive teeth, pain in the muscles of mastication, and clicking or locking of the temporomandibular joints.
Questionnaires can be used to screen for bruxism in both the clinical and research settings.
Types of Bruxism
There are two main types of bruxism, but both can definitely cause dental damage and cause pain. Learn about the difference between the two for easier identification.
- Nocturnal Bruxism
- Occurs when you are asleep. The grinding of teeth can be so loud, it can wake your partner up and be compared to loud snoring.
- Other symptoms may also occur during sleep such as cheek biting. Both men and women are equally affected by nocturnal bruxism.
- Awake Bruxism
- Usually a lot worse than nocturnal bruxism as it can last longer at wake but gradually fade away throughout the day.
- More common to occur in females
There are also three different types of sleep bruxism when it comes to severity.
- 3 Severity levels for Sleep Bruxism:
- Mild bruxism
- Occurs less than nightly and doesn’t damage teeth or cause psychosocial impairment
- Moderate bruxism
- occurs nightly with mild impairment of psychosocial functionality
- Severe bruxism
- Occurs nightly with damage to the teeth, causing tempormandibular disorders and other physical injuries with severe psychosocial impairment
- Mild bruxism
It can also be classified by its duration or how long it lasts with a person.
- 3 Duration levels for Sleep Bruxism:
- Acute bruxism
- Only lasts for less than one week
- Sub-acute bruxism
- Lasts longer than one week but less than one month
- Chronic bruxism
- Lasts for months
- Acute bruxism
Please consult your dentist for better diagnosis as bruxism can be a secondary symptom of other dental related problems or other sleeping conditions.
Symptoms
This condition is usually noticed due to its symptoms more than the actual problem itself which is the grinding of the teeth.
However, if you do not have anyone nearby, the best way to check for symptoms is observing if there are any pain. Here’s a list of possibly symptoms caused by bruxism.
- Disrupted sleep
- Tooth fractures
- Hypersensitive teeth
- Feeling pain when drinking cold beverage
- Cheek biting
- There will be damage from chewing on the inside of your cheek
- Glossodynia
- A burning sensation on the tongue
- Loud gnashing, grinding, clenching the teeth when awake or asleep
- Worn tooth enamel, exposing deeper layers of your tooth
- Flattened, fractured, chipped or loose teeth
- Indentations of the teeth in the tongue
- Increased tooth pain or sensitivity
- Jaw, neck or face pain or soreness
- Trismus
- Locked jaw that won’t open or close completely
- Tired or tight jaw muscles
- Headache and earache pain (but it’s not a problem with your ear)
- Dull headache starting in the temples
Usually, bruxism causes pain around the mouth area which can make speaking and eating difficult.
As of now, different kinds of treatments may exist for treating the symptoms but not the problem itself.
Treatment
The causes behind bruxism are still not fully understood which is why it is believed that it can involve multiple factors and also have different form of treatments.
Awake bruxism tend to be more common in females while sleep or nocturnal bruxism happens equally to both genders.
Alternatively, bruxism can be divided into primary bruxism where the disorder is not related to any other medical condition, or secondary bruxism, where the disorder is associated with other medical conditions.
As of now, different kinds of treatments may exist for treating the symptoms but not the problem itself.
- Dental treatment
- Usually, bruxism only causes dental damage which is why dental treatment is important. Your dentist can also recommend other treatment options for you.
- Oral appliances
- Mouth guards are especially effective for children with bruxism but can also work for adults. It helps prevent or lessen the times a person would unconsciously grind their teeth
- Follow a proper sleep routine
- It is observed that people who follow a healthy sleep schedule are less likely to encounter bruxism and prevent other disorders or conditions that may trigger bruxism
- Manage your stress levels
- Since stress is believed to be a relevant risk factor for bruxism, managing stress can possibly reduce the severity of bruxism
- Avoid emotional issues
- Same as managing your stress, controlling your emotional stability is also important and can improve your overall health.
- Use medications
- A dentist can recommend the best medication for you depending on what your body can take.
- If you develop bruxism as a side effect of a drug, your doctor may change your medication or prescribe a different one.
- Botox
- Botox is actually used as a treatment for bruxism as it can reduce facial pain that it can cause. Consult a health expert first before considering this method.
- Biofeedback
- Biofeedback is a method that uses monitoring procedures and equipment to teach you to control muscle activity in your jaw.
- Treating sleep-related disorders
- Addressing sleep-related disorders such as sleep apnea may improve sleep bruxism.
- Treat other illnesses
- If other health problems are potentially causing bruxism or making it worse, it’s important to treat it to lessen the severity of bruxism or possibly stop it completely.
The best way to determine the right treatment for you is by consulting a health expert. By conducting a physical examination, doctors or dentists can see if there are other problems possibly causing bruxism.
Treating the underlying cause is important to completely stop bruxism itself but right now, the condition is still a bit of a mystery to many people.
It is suggested that if you have bruxism, you should see your doctor or dentist for your own sake and to also help contribute to research.
Causes
As of today, the causes of bruxism is still not fully understood and continues to be studied by experts to learn better ways of treatment.
It is believed that the two different types of bruxism also have different causes. There is evidence that sleep bruxism is caused by mechanisms related to the central nervous system.
However, awake bruxism is more believed to be caused by emotions such as anxiety, stress, anger, frustration or tension as it can be accepted as a coping method or unconscious habit during deep concentration.
Sleep bruxism on the other hand, is believed to be a sleep related chewing activity associated with arousals during sleep or “sleep arousals”.
- Possible causes of Bruxism:
- Stress
- Emotional or mental stress may both contribute to unexplained behavior such as bruxism.
- Stress has a stronger relationship to awake bruxism, but the role of stress in sleep bruxism is less clear, some stating that there is no evidence for a relationship with sleep bruxism.
- Depression
- Mental health problems are observed to cause other unexplained conditions or worsen it
- Anxiety
- It has been shown that anxious people tend to display uncommon behavior such as teeth grinding when having an anxiety breakdown.
- Earache
- Bruxism in children are believed to be related to earache
- Teething
- When children are teething, there is a chance that they might be affected by bruxism
- Sleep arousal
- It has been shown that the majority (86%) of sleep bruxism episodes occur during periods of sleep arousal.
- Sleep arousals are a sudden change in the depth of the sleep stage.
- Sometimes accompanied by increased heart rate, respiratory changes and muscular activity, such as leg movements.
- Smoking
- Nicotine from smoke can increase dopamine production inside your body and disrupted dopamine levels are thought to cause bruxism.
- Bruxism appears to be more common in smokers than non-smokers.
- Genetics
- 21–50% of people with sleep bruxism have a direct family member who had sleep bruxism during childhood, suggesting that there are genetic factors involved.
- Children whose parents have sleep bruxism are more likely to also have sleep bruxism than children of people who do not have bruxism, or people with awake bruxism rather than sleep bruxism.
- Medication
- Using sedative drugs or specific medication can potentially cause bruxism
- Caffeine
- Bruxism can also be worsened by excessive consumption of caffeine
- Drug addiction
- Drugs like MDMA / ecstasy has been reported to be associated with bruxism, which occurs immediately after taking the drug and for several days afterwards.
- Age
- Bruxism is common in young children, but it usually goes away by adulthood.
- Stress
Complications
Though bruxism may seem harmless at first, if left untreated, it can lead to plenty of problems for your dental health.
- It can damage your teeth, restorations, crowns or jaw
- Moderate to severe facial pain and jaw pain
- Temporomandibular joint disorders
- The temporomandibular joints (TMJs) are located in front of your ears and disorders related to this may cause a clicking sound when you open and close your mouth
- Tension type headaches
- There are headaches when you can feel the “pressure” of the pain caused by it and this is common with bruxism
Treating bruxism mostly involves repairing its damages, but not the condition itself as it is still being studied to understand the problem.
It’s important to treat damage done to the teeth caused by bruxism.
As of the moment, bruxism isn’t declared “life-threatening” or not an emergency type of condition but it is still necessary to get moderate checkups to prevent severe pain and other damages to your health.
History
In 1907, Marie Pietkiewics suggested the French term “La bruxomania” which translates to “bruxomania” to refer to the illness. But in 1931, Frohman first coined the term “Bruxism”.
Bruxism is derived from the Greek word “βρύκειν (brykein)” which means “to bite” or “to gnash, grind the teeth”. People who suffer from bruxism are called bruxists or bruxers and the verb itself is “to brux”.
Related Questions
How do you stop a child from grinding their teeth at night?
If your child is suffering from bruxism, using mouth guards or appliances made by their dentist can help stop grinding of the teeth at night or nocturnal bruxism.
Bruxism among children usually goes away as they age, but visiting the dentist, managing stress level, staying hydrated and following a proper sleep routine are still recommended to protect their dental health.
What vitamin deficiency causes teeth grinding?
Calcium and magnesium vitamin deficiency are believed to be linked with teeth grinding or bruxism.
It is important to eat a healthy, balanced diet to keep your overall health away from complications.
Is grinding teeth a sign of autism?
Bruxism or grinding the teeth has been observed in children with autism, but as of now, bruxism is still continuously being studied and therefore cannot be officially declared as a sign of autism.
Bruxism in children with or without autism will usually outgrow the condition which is why it is believed to be non-threatening.
