What causes teeth grinding while sleeping?

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Teeth Grinding

Here is advice and input on teeth grinding's causes:

• Bad occlusion (bite) and mental stress.

• Stress can lead to bruxism but there are some people with normal bites and little stress that still grind their teeth at night. The solution is quite simple, use an athletic mouth guard when you go to bed. You could spend a lot of money to have one custom-made for you but the athletic guard molds to your teeth and is very inexpensive. If you lose it or grind your way thru it, it's easy and cheap to replace, unlike a custom-made appliance. Also, it's easy and free to re-size it, unlike a custom-made appliance.

• The most common reason is your stress level. People tend to clench their teeth at night when a stressfull situation bothers them. Without knowing you will just bite so hard that your muscles are hurt. Then when you are asleep your jaws are moving so hard that the chewing surfaces are damaged. The best solution is a night guard which can be done by your dentist. He will take an impression, send it to the lab ( dental technician)and then with your bite adjustment the night guard will be very helpful.

• The Dr's Nightguard works for only $20 but when I went to the dentist he made me a "splint" for $300. Although it is a lot, he showed me how it prevented the jaw and head muscles from clenching, which the Nightguard does not do. If you are suffering from headaches and muscle pain as well, this would be the best solution.

• Stress is a major cause of teeth grinding, it can be something that you are worrying about subconsciously, or maybe you don't have just one particular problem, but just don't know how to relax before going to sleep. Relaxation exercises can be good before going to sleep or keeping a worry journal, speak with a mental health counselor, they can provide you with lots of effective methods to relax.

Answer

I started grinding my teeth after having never done it before and it could have been 1 of several reasons (or all of them): stress, new medication or wisdom teeth.
I got all three at roughly the same time and as i am still grinding now and i still dont know which it is as all 3 were or are gone.

I stopped the medication - so its unlikely to be that; of course the symptom of grinding can turn into a habit so there is still a small possibility of it having been this.

I left the stressfull situation, but I have anxiety now because of it which I didnt before so it could still be stress related. The 3 wisdom teeth that were the problem were taken out, but I was still grinding

So I say its likely to be stress, but you can never really tell just keep note of changes in your life, new medicines, and wisdom teeth problems and generally anything that you notice that was around the same time as they are all clues and possible culprits.

I know you may be worried about it, I am. I used to worry about grinding my teeth right out as I have ground so hard it wakes us both up, and only last night i had horrible dreams of grinding all my teeth out-it felt so real!!

So i understand this may well cause you a lot of worry and stress itself, but I actually went to the dentist 2 years ago and got myself a plate which fits on your teeth at night and it helped a lot, it also helped the headaches id been getting because of jaw strain.

I lost it months ago and started worrying about it again, so im hoping to go get another one soon and untill i do i will probably keep having those horrible dreams!)

So I suggest you try one of those it definitely helped ease my worrying and the headaches and you can grind all you want, if its a good plate it wont break and your teeth are safe!

And of course try to work out what could be causing you stress and talk about it with someone and see the dentist to make sure your teeth are all ok and get one of those plates.

Additional

I have recently got the medication again i was talking about, and on the leaflet it NOW says side effects include clenching and grinding of teeth.

So that sorts that out officially it definitely strted because of the medication, so I say check your most recent addition in medication, ask the docs if theres any history of this, read the leaflets and any info you can get (sometimes there is not but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen only that they dont take note of it- which is very sadly all too common) its always worth investigating it.

First answer by ID0000000000. Last edit by Cyberanto. Contributor trust: 316 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 548 [recommend question]