Have your noticed strange sounds at night that comes from your children's bedroom? It is probably that your children suffer from teeth grinding or bruxism. Actually children are not the only ones who suffer from this disorder; adults do too (and for years) without them even notice it. However, tooth grinding does not cause a severe harm, but they do can damage your teeth producing cracks as well as other complications.
But the questions remains why do people grind their teeth? The physical cause of this are crooked teeth and abnormal bite. Other psychological causes are anxiety and stress that usually are shown at night. How to find out if you are a teeth grinder at night is usually hard because it happen during your deep sleep. Nevertheless, you can perceive the signs of teeth grinding when you wake up in the morning and start feeling jaw sore or headaches. Another way is to ask the person that sleep next to you.
For confirming your suspicions it is recommendable you visit a dentist who by examining your jaw and your teeth will be able to determine if you are a teeth grinder or not and what can you to stop grinding teeth. Why not taking teeth grinding for granted? Teeth grinding can become chronic over time and may turn into teeth fracturing that can produce tooth decay that will make you wear implants, partial denture and even complete ones. Likewise, it can affect your jaws producing deafness, TMD (Temporomandibular disorders) and TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint disorders) that can even alter the appearance of your face.
Stop teeth grinding most common treatment consists on wearing a teeth grinding guard while you are sleeping. If the cause of your grinding is stress, then the doctor will recommend you the best options to handle your stress as an exercise program and/or the intake or relaxants.
On top of this, you can do well for you by your own ways by start leaving alcohol; foods and drinks with caffeine; the chewing gums; and biting pencils or any other hard object. Likewise you can ease you jaw placing washcloths on your cheeks, near to the earlobe before going to bed; and relax your jaw muscles by placing the tip of your tongue between the upper and lower teeth.
