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How to Prevent Teeth Grinding

October 31, 2016

Upper East Side Teeth Grinding | Manhattan Dental Office

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We all know the basics of dental hygiene, brush and floss at least twice a day, avoid hard foods that could crack your teeth, and stay away from lots of acid to keep your enamel strong. One of the biggest issues many of us have that we don’t even always notice is grinding. It can ruin your teeth, and lots of people do it in their sleep without knowing! Dr. Lattinelli and the rest of our staff put together a little guide to help you find out if you’re grinding your teeth and what to do to prevent it.

Another common name for teeth grinding is bruxism. It can become extremely painful and lead to serious issues if it goes untreated for too long. A few signs that can diagnose bruxism include waking up with chips in your teeth, headaches, or jaw pain. There’s no immediate known cause for bruxism but things like stress and anxiety may increase your chances of suffering from this nighttime ailment. Certain medications that affect dopaminergic systems, or SSRIs, can also cause you to grind your teeth at night.

Over time, the subtle symptoms we mentioned above can become much more serious. Headaches can progress to more painful tension headaches and migraines, buzzing, ringing, or hissing in the ears, ear congestion and earaches, cracked teeth, painful jaw muscles, broken dental work, and worn down teeth. A lot of this damage can be permanent and require surgery in order to prevent tooth loss.

While there is no cure for bruxism, there are several things you can do to treat the symptoms and prevent it from worsening. The first thing you’ll want to do is get fitted for a nighttime mouth guard. These fit securely in your mouth and prevent any sort of tooth on tooth contact. You also eliminate the risk of biting your tongue and the insides of your cheeks. There are also several medications you can try, but the mouth guard should be your primary method of prevention.

If you or a loved one are suffering from bruxism, we would love to help you resolve the issue today. Call us here at Dr. Lattinelli's and set up your appointment to meet with our caring staff.