According to the American Dental Association, dentists observed a 69 percent increase in patients who clench or grind their teeth during the pandemic. It’s a behavior that’s virtually entirely unintentional. And the majority of these folks are probably completely oblivious of what they’re doing.
Bruxism is a disorder. In Bruxism, the teeth are subjected to up to 200 pounds of force. According to Ada Cooper, a dentist and spokesman for the American Dental Association, “the biting strength of grinding can be up to six times larger than regular chewing.” It’s no surprise that it may cause teeth to wear out or even break. Bruxism can be particularly bothersome for older adults whose teeth may be weaker.
Bruxism can strike at any hour of the day or night. It’s possible that stress is a contributing element. Cohn, head of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s Dental Assembly, adds that increased stress hormones may continuously circulate after a rough day, either during acute tension or during sleep, as published by the Washington Post.
Alcohol and cigarette use, for instance, increase the risk. “Smokers are almost twice as likely as non-smokers to grind their teeth,” Cooper adds. Certain drugs, such as antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs, might also make you more vulnerable.
Bruxism can be caused or exacerbated by conditions that affect the central nervous system, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or stroke. It frequently occurs in conjunction with temporomandibular joint diseases, which cause discomfort in the jaw. Finally, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition in which the upper airway becomes frequently obstructed during sleep, resulting in multiple breathing pauses.
According to Manar Abdelrahim, a dentist at Cleveland Clinic, persons with OSA may “unconsciously overcompensate and grind their teeth when they force their jaw forward to expand the airway.”
A fractured tooth, crown, or filling may be an obvious indicator that something is wrong. But there are other signs as well to look out for. People with sleep bruxism, for example, may wake up with a hurting jaw or neck, ringing in the ears, a headache, a stiff jaw, or markings around the edge of the tongue from clenched teeth. In older persons, chronic severe heartburn is a common cause of tooth deterioration.
Electromyography or a video recording in a sleep lab can conclusively identify sleep Bruxism.
Relaxation exercises (such as yoga and meditation) may be beneficial. Increasing your awareness of the activity might also help. “Gently open your mouth and enable the teeth to float away from one other if your teeth are touching during a stressful moment,” Cooper suggests.
If our teeth are touching during a stressful circumstance, softly expanding our mouth and allowing the teeth to drift apart, Cooper added.
A physical therapist who specializes in treating Bruxism can teach you techniques to stretch, strengthen, and relax the muscles in your neck and jaw, which can help you avoid clenching and grinding.
The teeth are protected by a guard, which creates space between them and allows the jaw muscles to relax. Neither will break the habit, but they will protect your teeth from additional damage.
Injections of botulinum toxin into the jaw muscles that govern chewing may lower the pressure you put on your teeth and can help in this disorder.
