Bruxism - what is it
Uncontrolled grinding of teeth, resulting from spasms of the masticatory muscles. If you come across texts about the Carolini phenomenon, odonterism, “teeth grinding disease” - they are all about bruxism, and the names listed are synonyms of bruxism. Translated from ancient Greek, bruxism means grinding.
Dentists distinguish two types of this disease.
- Directly grinding, that is, the friction of the teeth against each other.
- Clanching is a static clenching of teeth that occurs without friction.
Bruxism is often chronic, causing discomfort to a person for many years. If left untreated, it results in complications: problems with the temporomandibular joint, chronic stress, and abrasion of tooth enamel.
It is necessary to distinguish between childhood and adult bruxism - they have many significant differences. Here we will look in detail at the course of this disease in adults. There is a separate article on childhood “teeth grinding disease”.
Night grinding of teeth.
A person does not realize that he grinds his teeth when he sleeps. Doesn't wake up from gritting her teeth and may not be aware of the problem at all. Only his relatives can talk about it.
Daytime teeth grinding.
This type of bruxism is already recognized by a person. But clenching of teeth occurs involuntarily and cannot be controlled. During daytime bruxism, a person feels discomfort, which causes periodic strong tension in the facial muscles.
Age characteristics
Before you go for a consultation with a pediatrician, parents should know that teeth grinding at night, heard from the children's room, is often due to age-related characteristics.
7-8 months
The main reason: an excess of emotional impressions during the day, as an option - stress due to weaning;
Accompanying symptoms: anxiety, crying, whims, refusal to eat, disruption of feeding and sleep patterns.
What to do: provide the baby with the most comfortable environment possible, postpone weaning to another period, less noise during the day, soothing baths before bed.
9-10 months
Main reason: teething.
Accompanying symptoms: swelling of the gums, fever, crying, excessive salivation, the desire to put various objects into the mouth.
What to do: give painkillers orally (Vibrukol, Panadol, Nurofen), lubricate the gums with cooling gels (Cholisal, Kamistad, Dentinox), use anti-inflammatory toothpastes for children (Weleda, SPLAT Junior, SPLAT Magic Foam).
11-12 months
The main reason: improper transition to regular food for adults, as a result of which various vitamin deficiencies and deficiencies of micro- and macroelements are observed.
Accompanying symptoms: developmental abnormalities, lethargy, sleep disturbances, pale skin, loss of appetite, convulsions.
What to do: seek help from a pediatrician as soon as possible.
1-2 years
The main reason: at 1 year of age, nasal breathing disorders and various inflammatory processes in the nasopharynx are most often diagnosed.
Accompanying symptoms: adenoiditis, sinusitis, difficulty breathing, cough, rhinitis.
What to do: promptly treat any colds and infectious diseases, engage in ongoing prevention, seek help from an otolaryngologist.
If parents do not take care of the fact that the baby grinds his teeth more and more often, this can lead to the development of chronic diseases of the nasopharynx and improper formation of the jaw.
3-4 years
The main reason: the age crisis of 3 years, accompanied by adaptation to kindergarten.
Accompanying symptoms: whims, hysterics, disobedience, refusal of the usual daily routine.
What to do: be patient, help in adapting to kindergarten, wait out the age crisis.
5-6 years
The main reason: improperly formed bite, neuralgic problems.
Accompanying symptoms: tension and spasms of the facial muscles, incorrect placement of teeth, complaints of pain of various types. Most often, at this age, children grind their teeth during the day.
What to do: correct the bite (wear removable structures: mouth guards, trainers, slings, plates), engage in myotherapy and orthodontic treatment, and also seek advice from a neurologist.
7-8 years
The main reason: the age crisis of 7 years, accompanied by adaptation to school.
Accompanying symptoms: self-willed, tries to imitate adults, demands independence.
What to do: be patient, help in adapting to school, wait out the age crisis.
If a child grinds his teeth due to age-related characteristics, with the correct attitude of the parents and timely measures taken, this will quickly go away.
The most common consequences of teeth grinding in adults
- Increased tooth wear. Constant friction causes teeth to lose their natural height. In general, this is a natural process: with age, all people's teeth become a little shorter. But with bruxism this happens much faster. Plus, constant grinding of teeth results in frequent loss of fillings, the appearance of chips and roughness.
- Pain in the mouth. It appears due to the fact that during bruxism a person often “bites” his cheeks. Wounds and abrasions appear that do not have time to heal.
- Headache, nagging pain in the neck, ringing in the ears, dizziness. If the cause of these neurological symptoms cannot be substantiated by other diseases, then there is a high probability that these are the consequences of constant teeth grinding.
- Drowsiness, irritability, general “weakness,” fatigue. All this can appear if a person suffering from bruxism has trouble sleeping at night due to constant clenching of teeth during sleep.
A person himself can rarely understand that the cause of his health problems is bruxism. The diagnosis can be made only with the help of a special study - electromyography.
Why do adults clench their teeth?
There is no clear answer. However, research and observations have allowed doctors to identify several hypotheses for the occurrence of bruxism.
- Bad habits
Sometimes, in order to concentrate, some people chew on a pen or toothpick. Over time, this action can become a conditioned reflex. And when a person needs to concentrate, he involuntarily clenches an imaginary toothpick between his teeth. This may explain the occurrence of teeth grinding during sleep. - Nervous stress
Often adults clench their teeth when they want to hold back in a stressful situation. If this happens for a long time, the body may develop an uncontrollable habit: the slightest overexertion - we clench our teeth tightly. This is another version of the appearance of bruxism at night in adults. - Neurological diseases
Also, people suffering from a number of neurological diseases often grind their teeth at night: epilepsy, tremor, enuresis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease - all of them are characterized by such a symptom as bruxism. - Insomnia
If a person does not sleep normally for a long time, often wakes up at night, is more often in a state of shallow rather than deep sleep, he clenches his jaw uncontrollably because he begins to get nervous because he cannot get a good night's sleep. - Pathologies of the dental system
Bruxism can be caused by a pathological bite: it causes an uneven distribution of the load on the teeth. For treatment in this case, read the article “Bite correction in adults.” Also, the cause of clenching teeth at night may be their overcrowding. With this disorder, the teeth do not close completely. In addition, dentists studying the phenomenon of bruxism note that its cause may be the desire of people to “shorten” fillings or dentures that were installed incorrectly: a person tries to “erase” them and often begins to close their jaws tightly and move them relative to each other . Over time, this can become an unconscious habit.
For quite a long time, bruxism was considered a symptom of helminthic infestation. Scientific research has not confirmed this theory.
We determine pathology by symptoms
If these are dental problems and diseases
When the problem is caused by dental pathology, there are other signs besides grinding while eating: pain and increased sensitivity of the enamel, reaction to mechanical and thermal stress, the presence of stains, cracks and chips. If the enamel is crumbled, then with the destroyed crown you will periodically injure the mucous membrane of the tongue or cheeks.
With malocclusion pathologies, the situation can be complicated by facial asymmetry and severe disruption of the aesthetics of the smile, headaches, joint and muscle pain.
If it's bruxism
A person most often learns about grinding from relatives and friends, since they mainly appear during sleep and much less often during eating. The person himself cannot hear them during sleep. But other symptoms may also indicate nocturnal pathology: in the morning you feel tired, because bruxism affects the quality of sleep. During attacks (lasting 10–15 seconds and occurring up to 20 times a night), the pulse and breathing quicken, blood pressure rises, snoring appears, and the person can talk in his sleep. During the daytime, such people are more likely to experience drowsiness than others, they quickly get tired and fatigued, they have low performance and are prone to depression.
People who have this problem day and night, after a while, begin to feel discomfort, pain when chewing food and jaw clicking, they have a headache and jaw (less often, neck and shoulders).
On a note! Some researchers note that one of the characteristic habits of people with bruxism is the desire to constantly chew something. For adults, this could be their fingernails, a pencil or a pen. For children, this can be any object, even a TV remote control.
Psychosomatic explanation of bruxism
Now one of the most common versions of teeth grinding is psychosomatic. That is, bruxism is the result of hidden experiences, long-suppressed emotions, complexes, and fears. All this can cause spasm of the chewing muscles. There is also an assumption that bruxism accompanies a number of mental disorders. Thus, scientists from Germany studying “adult” bruxism conducted a study, the results of which indicate that teeth clenching is directly related to chronic depression.
ATTENTION!
Confusion of the soul is the main cause of teeth grinding. This was the opinion of Hippocrates. And he was probably not far from the truth.
What procedures can a dentist not perform for bruxism?
Chronic teeth grinding often makes it impossible to carry out dental treatment: for some types it is an absolute contraindication, for others it is a relative one. It all depends on the severity of bruxism.
Treatment with braces.
For bruxism, dentists prefer to replace it with mouth guards. They are softer than braces and do not injure the mucous membranes, gums and tongue, which often happens if a person regularly clenches his jaw tightly. In addition, braces often break due to bruxism.
Installation of ceramic crowns
undesirable for “teeth grinding disease.” Despite the fact that modern dental ceramics are quite durable, they still cannot withstand the increased pressure that occurs during bruxism, and the ceramic crown is destroyed.
For implantation
Bruxism is considered an absolute contraindication, since the risk is too high that due to constant clenching of the teeth, the implant will become loose and fall out.
Restoration with lumineers, veneers, composites
It is ineffective for bruxism. It can be done, but it will not be possible to avoid mechanical damage to mini-prostheses. This has been recorded over many years of observations.
Treatment and prevention
There is no specific treatment for bruxism, since this pathology is not an independent disease. The main task of the doctor is to identify the cause of the pathology. The treatment regimen will depend on this. To eliminate teeth grinding, drug therapy, physical therapy, correction of the emotional state and dental methods are used, for example, installing protective mouthguards on the teeth.
Main methods of therapy:
- Normalization of sleep with the help of sedatives.
- Taking B vitamins, preparations with magnesium and calcium.
- Treatment of adenoids.
- Psychological correction - art therapy, music therapy, sandbox. Working with parents in the presence of intra-family conflicts.
To relieve muscle tension, you can use pine baths, massage and exercise in the pool.
The dentist helps protect teeth from abrasion by installing a special protective mouth guard. It is made of soft material, so it does not cause discomfort. It can only be worn at night. The most optimal way is to make mouth guards based on an individual impression. But you can also buy ready-made ones. This method is only suitable for schoolchildren.
Also, if there is damage to the enamel and sensitivity, fluoridation and remineralization of teeth are performed. If necessary, caries treatment is carried out.
An orthodontist will help you correct your bite. For this purpose, plates and bracket systems are used. The orthodontic design is selected individually, based on the severity of the problem and the age of the child. A malocclusion can be easily corrected when the jaws have not yet fully formed. Therefore, the sooner you visit a pediatric orthodontist, the better the result will be.
How to prevent bruxism: recommendations for parents
The main preventive measure is to create a comfortable, calm and trusting atmosphere at home. Even if you think that everything is fine in your family, your child may think differently.
Try to help your child cope with emotions. Communicating with animals, drawing a picture of a problem, and using toys as interlocutors helps a lot.
Do not ignore preventive examinations from specialists. Treat caries promptly. Try to enrich your child’s diet with vitamins, do not chop food. Walk outdoors every day.
A single grinding of teeth is not a cause for concern. But if attacks of bruxism become more and more frequent, then consult a doctor to identify the cause.
Should adults treat bruxism?
Teeth grinding is an unpleasant disease, but its severity for the patient, of course, cannot be compared with, say, a complete absence of teeth and caries. However, the long-term consequences of bruxism are still unpleasant. It may interfere with prosthetics, implantation, and orthodontic treatment with braces, if necessary. In most cases, you will simply need to get rid of uncontrollable teeth clenching, but this will require additional time and money. But, in general, we are lucky that we do not live in the Middle Ages - then the Inquisition interpreted gnashing of teeth as a symbol of connection with the devil and executed people. Today we have all the means to get rid of this disease. The main thing is not to delay your visit to the dentist and start treatment on time.
