Teeth Grinding and Resultant Facial Pain

Waking up with headache, sore teeth and jaw pain is a common condition among many people. This may be due to the habit of grinding teeth at night. This habit is also known as bruxism. Although stress and anxiety are thought to be the common reasons for bruxism, another reason for it may be the bad alignment of teeth.

What is bruxism?

Bruxism is basically a habit of grinding or clenching teeth together. Although it can happen in the day time, it happens mostly during night sleep. The disadvantage of this habit is that it can result in worn out, fractured, and/or chipped teeth. The most obvious symptom of this habit is the headache and jaw pain you may feel after waking up. Stress, anxiety, and bad alignment of teeth are the main reasons for this condition. Now, this condition can result in TMJ or TMD, also known as temporomandibular joint disorder. This issue is mainly associated with the chewing muscles of the lower jaw.

How to deal with this problem?

In most of the cases, dentists suggest the use of night guard while sleeping. Night guard is a clear, hard, and acrylic guard which is worn over the teeth in upper or lower jaw. After wearing this guard, your teeth will not be able to grind with each other. The making of this guard is pretty simple. Your dentist will take an impression of your teeth and send it to the laboratory where a customized guard, for your teeth only, will be prepared. You can also purchase over-the-counter night guard but these night guards are not guaranteed to fit on the teeth. This unfitting can be uncomfortable. Here, you can take advice from your professional dentist.

Since stress is one of the reasons for bruxism, it is very important to get relaxed before you go to the bed. Most of the times, you don’t need to consult a psychiatrist to get relaxed. You can do it at home. Take a warm shower before going to bed and consider having cup of herbal tea. There are certain relaxation techniques which you can apply to get relaxed.

Teeth grinding in children

Many people think that children do not grind their teeth. This is not quite right. Children have high emotions which can arise due to any smaller trigger. They may have issues in school or playground. These issues can lead to stressful thoughts and, ultimately, teeth grinding. Although there is no big issue with the baby teeth as those teeth are going to be replaced by adult ones, you don’t want your child to carry this habit to later stages of life.