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3 Common Causes of Teeth Grinding

5th December, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Despite teeth grinding being a customary issue, there is no worldwide concurrence as to why people do it. There are probably quite a few different causes, as many problems and behaviors have been linked with teeth grinding, or bruxism. Next are some probable sources for grinding of the teeth, although everyone’s matter is a bit different.

Stress and anxiety are the most common causes for people to start teeth grinding. Everybody copes with stress differently but emotional stress tends to tense up your body as well and lots of people store this tension in their jaws. Often people don’t even know that they are teeth grinding. Unfortunately, stress can even cause people to grind their teeth in their sleep, which can be even harder to deal with. This is why mouth guards are prescribed to some patients who grind their teeth in their sleep, though their effectiveness is disputed by some. If you are teeth grinding because of stress, you need to address the actual problem causing the stress as well as your physical reaction to it. Some nutritionists and doctors believe that some teeth grinding is caused by nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. It has been shown that calcium deficiency and magnesium deficiency can cause teeth grinding. This isn’t something that experts agree on but, because nutrition affects your dental health, they agree that it could be possible. Furthermore, it has been widely recognized that stress is a factor in teeth grinding and, since nutritional deficiencies can cause stress and emotional problems, it is true that improving your nutrition can be very helpful both in cutting down on your stress and reducing teeth grinding. If you think that nutritional issues are causing your teeth grinding, you can correct your balance by eating better and taking supplements but talk to your doctor before you attempt to correct things by yourself.

If your teeth are not aligned correctly, that could be the reason that you have started teeth grinding. In both adults and children malocclusion (abnormal alignment of the upper and lower teeth) has been proven to cause the grinding of teeth. This happens more to kids because their permanent teeth haven’t grown in all the way yet. While the teeth are growing in, the kids grind their teeth together if the upper and lower teeth don’t fit together well. In such cases, the teeth grinding usually stops after their teeth have all finished growing. Some adults, unfortunately, are forced to deal with misalignment in the long term which can lead to them grinding their teeth for most of their lives. If you are one of these adults you should have your alignment corrected by your dentist and take extra precaution against the grinding of your teeth.

In summary, it’s a good idea to have your dentist help you figure out why you have a teeth grinding problem. If there is an obvious cause, you can often help the teeth grinding but treating the underlying problem. Still, even if the determinants are tough to recognize, there are remedies that can be beneficial. Ponder over the contributing factors mentioned above and ask yourself if they might pertain to you.

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