How to Stop Grinding Your Teeth While Asleep and the Importance of Doing So

Grinding can put your teeth at serious risk. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize they’re doing it because it often happens while sleeping. If you want to protect your teeth, here are the signs to watch for — and why you shouldn’t ignore them.

In the grand scheme of things, teeth grinding may not seem like a big deal. However, it’s a habit that can cause long-term damage without intervention.

But this pesky problem often occurs during sleep, so how do you know if you do it? If it’s been happening for a while, you may be able to spot the signs already — overly tight jaw muscles and chipped teeth.

At Supertooth™, we offer comprehensive dentistry services to repair any damage that teeth grinding may have already caused. However, our experienced dental experts also have the advanced skills to spot the signs of teeth grinding so you can stop this harmful habit.

Causes of teeth grinding

Known as bruxism, teeth grinding is more than just a bad habit. People with this condition unconsciously grind or clench their teeth, and it can occur while asleep or awake. The precise cause of bruxism isn’t well understood.

Daytime teeth grinding may be due to emotional stressors, like anger, frustration, or anxiety. Nighttime grinding is often a type of movement disorder that occurs when a sleep disruption triggers unconscious mouth movements, like chewing.

In most cases, bruxism starts in childhood, and you often grow out of it. However, certain factors can increase your chances of this problem, such as:

Personality type
A family history of the condition
Taking certain medications

There are also links between bruxism and certain medical conditions, including sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Parkinson’s disease.

Signs that you grind your teeth

Even if you don’t notice yourself clenching or grinding your teeth, you could experience other signs that you do, such as:

Jaw or face pain
Increased tooth sensitivity
Worn tooth enamel
Damage to soft tissue inside your cheek
Problems opening or closing your jaw
Chipped or cracked teeth

If you grind your teeth by day, you might catch yourself in action because you hear your teeth making noises or feel pain during the movement. For those who grind in their sleep, the issue may not become apparent until you start experiencing dental problems or waking up with jaw pain.

How to stop grinding your teeth

Now for the good news: You can save your teeth from grinding!

Early intervention can help prevent serious complications. If you catch yourself grinding or clenching your teeth, don’t wait to schedule an evaluation with our team at Supertooth.

Our providers rely on several strategies to stop teeth grinding, such as:

Lifestyle changes, like avoiding caffeine or alcohol at night
Botox® therapy, muscle relaxers, or anti-anxiety medications
Physical therapy or stress management techniques
Special mouth guards that fit over your teeth to protect them from the effects of grinding

If an underlying condition contributes to your teeth grinding, our providers can refer you to other experts who specialize in sleep disorders and conditions like Parkinson’s disease or ADHD.

In addition to treating teeth grinding, our team can also thoroughly evaluate the health of your teeth and jaws to identify and treat existing damage from teeth grinding.

Services for tooth damage can vary from treatments that repair chips to procedures that reshape chewing surfaces worn down by grinding or clenching. If persistent teeth grinding has damaged the jaw joint, we could recommend surgery to repair the joint structures.

Do you think you’ve been grinding your teeth while you sleep? Don’t wait to find solutions. Call Supertooth in Bethesda, Gaithersburg, or Germantown, Maryland, or book a consultation online today.