Stop Teeth Grinding

Unwind your Teeth Grind

Teeth grinding can sound like ‘the sound of creaking stairs’ or ‘walnuts being cracked’. It can also feel very painful and a hindrance to a good night's sleep. The habit of teeth grinding can come from a few, often linked sources.

Occlusion

Teeth grinding can be the process of creating free pathways for your teeth as they move over each other. Many of us see a dentist who explains that the way our teeth have erupted into our mouths may not be ideal and that the surfaces between our upper and lower teeth interfere with a smooth, optimum movement.

Your Dentist may suggest Orthodontics to reposition your teeth as the grinding can develop into a habit for reducing this ‘malocclusion’ between your upper and lower teeth over time. Wearing down the enamel to improve the movement of our lower jaw over time cannot be controlled. This unconscious habit may start to excessively wear the teeth surfaces thus damaging them.

TMJ

Another factor can be the function of your Temporomandibular joint. This joint can become damaged and or the joint disc dislocated leading to muscle tension and over compensation of movement and load on the joint itself. If untreated this joint can become further damaged and excessive biting loads on the teeth surfaces can lead to cracks and breakage.

Stress Habit

A third and very common reason is that this 'habit' can be related to stress. Research has shown that a high proportion of night time teeth grinding and day clenching is stress related. From the Hypnotherapy in Practice page you will see how by relaxing someone and focusing on the localised area of physical manifestation (grinding/muscle tension/jaw pain) the symptoms can be effectively reduced. We all manifest stress in certain ways, often shallow breathing and a consequent loss of breath. As with increased stress we try and control our breathing more, leading to muscle tension in the head, shoulder and neck region. A way of temporary releasing this stress is grinding your teeth. This can interrupt your sleep (Sleep Well) leading to increased stress, frustration and effected performance.

Very often your dentist will prescribe a hard or soft night time appliance for you to wear. Calm Horizon has developed an effective treatment linking together the clinical skills of your dentist with behavioural hypnotherapy sessions to reduce your grinding and increase you level of comfort. If you feel that you could benefit from this, contact your dentist or any of the dentists we work with ‘Where we are’.