Bruxism or grinding of teeth

Why do they grind their teeth in their sleep? What does the creaking and grinding of teeth mean in a dream? How does it affect your health if you grind your teeth in a dream? Is grinding teeth bruxism?

Bruxism (odonterism) or colloquially, creaking, grinding of teeth both during the day and at night in a dream, is a sign of serious problems from a functional and psychological point of view. How to treat bruxism, what are the complications and consequences of grinding teeth are discussed in the article "Bruxism or teeth grinding".

Bruxism: symptoms and signs

What is bruxism? Why do teeth grind?

As such, bruxism is a prominent symptom and sign of a complex neurodental problem. Answering the question why people grind their teeth, experts note that this problem is associated with a psycho-neurological imbalance between:

1. facial and chewing muscles, which leads to
2. increased tooth wear, with a decrease in the height of the lower face
3. and as a consequence of the first two problems, ends with vertical overload and dysfunction of the mandibular joint.

That is, all the signs and landmarks of occlusion (closure) of the teeth suffer: muscular, articular, dental.

A characteristic symptom of bruxism is unconscious (subconscious) clenching (compression) of the jaws. This happens day and night, and is often accompanied by creaking or gnashing of teeth.

In the advanced stage, bruxism has the following characteristic symptoms and signs:

1. Grinding or grinding of teeth at night, less often during the day
2. Reducing the height (grinding, abrasion) of the teeth, with characteristic areas of abrasion on the chewing surface of the lateral teeth. On molars and premolars, tubercles are ground off and a flat chewing surface is obtained.
3. Multiple wedge-shaped defects, first on the premolars, then as bruxism develops on the molars, then on the incisors.
4. The occurrence of exostoses (bone protrusions and thickenings) in the region of premolars and molars.
5. Clicking and pain in the mandibular joint.
6. Migraine and spastic pains in her.
7. Numbness of the jaw, spasms or fatigue of the facial muscles immediately after sleep.
8. Teeth crumble in the upper and lower jaw

Teeth grinding: complications and consequences

Grinding teeth, like other consequences of bruxism, causes numerous complications:

1. Erasure of hard tissues of teeth, enamel and dentin, wedge-shaped defects appear
2. Increased tooth sensitivity
3. Stimulates multiple dental caries
4. Abnormal tooth mobility may occur
5. Resorption and atrophy of the bone tissue around the roots of the teeth
6. Breakage and chipping of the lining of metal-ceramic crowns
7. Pain in chewing muscles and the development of migraine
8. Mental stress and the inability to properly relax in a dream
9. Fatigue and, as a result, a tendency to depression, which negatively affects performance

Teeth grinding: causes

If you answer yes to the question: “Do I grind my teeth?”, You need to see a doctor and look for reasons why teeth grind in a dream. The main initial cause, when uncontrolled teeth grinding occurs, is a persistent violation of the nervous regulation of the masticatory muscles. Disorders of the muscle regulation of the masticatory muscles in most cases are associated with chronic stress, which the patient cannot cope with on his own.

With constant compression of the jaws, the load on the dentition increases significantly, and it is understandable why the teeth of an adult crumble. As a rule, a tooth crumbles when there is practically no enamel left on it. Dentin is a less strong tissue, so the front teeth (where there is less enamel) are first grinded and crumbled, and then the back teeth.

Less commonly, the cause may be Parkinson's disease, as well as serious dentoalveolar bite anomalies.

Chronic alcoholism and the use of strong psychostimulants and drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines also contribute to the development of bruxism and teeth grinding.

Taking into account the fact that clenching of the teeth occurs involuntarily (subconsciously), the patient often does not notice or pay attention to the creaking and grinding of teeth, and during sleep does not even realize that he is sleeping with tightly clenched teeth, which, when the lower jaw is shifted, creak against each other. friend.

By and large, it doesn’t matter why a person grinds his teeth in a dream, but what matters is how quickly he gets to a gnathologist for the treatment and prevention of complications of bruxism. Treatment of complications of this disease is long and expensive. Accordingly, if a loved one grinds his teeth in a dream, take him to a gnathologist immediately! Thus, you will save him from significant health problems. Bruxism in adults requires treatment and almost never goes away on its own.

Teeth with bruxism, photo

Worms and toothache, is there a connection?

There is no basis for such a view. The connection and dependence of bruxism on worms is absent, both in adults and in children.

How to treat bruxism?

Now that it has become clear why they grind their teeth, we can discuss the treatment of bruxism in adults.

Bruxism must be treated comprehensively:

1. First, pain in the masticatory muscles is relieved and the tone of the masticatory muscles is corrected with the help of uncoupling mouthguards and Botox injections into the masticatory muscles. Mouthguards for bruxism are a necessary element of the treatment process. There are mouthguards for bruxism individual and standard (averaged). An individual kappa from bruxism, (or in other words, an occlusal splint) provides a smooth correction of the masticatory muscle tone, which reduces the pressure of the upper and lower dentition on each other.
2. Then the dysfunction of the mandibular joint is treated. Depending on the severity of the condition, either conservatively or surgically. Arthrolavage of the joint cavity, plasty of the articular disc and other methods, including physiotherapy with infrared laser and low intensity currents, can be applied.
3. After normalizing the tone of the masticatory muscles and correcting the condition of the mandibular joint, the dentition is restored.

Depending on the pathology, either orthodontic treatment of malocclusion or prosthetics with crowns or ceramic onlays is used to restore the height of worn teeth. They also restore the correct canine separation and incisal guidance of the teeth of the lower jaw.

To preserve the hard tissues of the teeth, remineralizing therapy and preventive fluoridation of the teeth are used.

It is important to understand the following: Bruxism and the accompanying grinding of the teeth is a serious signal of problems with both the masticatory muscles and the jaw joint and teeth. It is necessary to treat all these problems together, in a certain sequence, which is what gnatology does. The sooner bruxism is treated, the more complications and problems can be avoided.