Teeth Grinding Causes, Symptoms And How To Prevent It From Happening
Grinding or clenching your teeth can happen during the day or while sleeping, sometimes without even realizing you are doing it. Teeth grinding can cause a number of different health issues such as headaches, tooth pain, ground down teeth, and jaw disorders. If you're waking up tired each and every morning, or waking up in pain every day, you could have an issue with teeth grinding. See below for causes and symptoms of teeth grinding and how to help prevent it from happening.
Causes Of Teeth Grinding
- Stress
- Abnormal bite
- Missing or crooked teeth
Symptoms Of Teeth Grinding
- Loud grinding at night
- Jaw soreness
- Sensitive teeth
- Tongue indentations
- Broken or worn down teeth
- Earaches
- Facial pain
Prevention Tips
- Reduce Stress. Reducing your daily stress can help prevent teeth grinding. Try to do things such as exercise during the day, do yoga, take a warm bath before bed, and read more to help reduce stress. Doing other things you love that can help reduce stress and anxiety can also be helpful.
- Lower Caffeine Intake. Drinking caffeine can cause you to lose sleep, can increase anxiety and cause you to grind your teeth more. Caffeine is found in coffee beverages, soda and chocolate.
- Avoid Chewing On Objects. Chewing on non-food objects such as pencils, pens, or gum can cause your jaw to clench more often, not to mention chewing on these items can be bad for your teeth.
- Perform Relaxing Jaw Exercises. Help reduce the tendency of clenching your jaw by doing exercises such as keeping your mouth parted just a bit with your tongue pressed up against the back of your teeth. Massage your jaw to help loosen the jaw muscles. You can also apply a washcloth to your jaw to help relax your muscles.
- Use A Mouth Guard. A mouth guard can help reduce teeth grinding. You can purchase a night mouth guard at your local pharmacy, or make an appointment with your dentist to have one fitted specifically for you. The mouth guard helps prevent you from grinding your teeth.
Make sure if you notice your jaw clenching throughout the day, jaw pain when you wake in the morning, headaches or tooth pain that you make an appointment with your dentist, someone like John S. Lyon DDS, right away to prevent any further damage to your teeth or jaw from occurring. Try your best to reduce stress and anxiety before bed and wear a nigh mouth guard to help with the issue.
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