Teeth Grinding at Night

Signs of grinding teeth in sleep...

Look at:

Canine teeth have the important job of protecting your other teeth from bumping into each other when your jaw moves from left to right.

Here's how canines protect your teeth:

Start with your teeth together. Now slide your jaw from side to side your canine teeth should make your jaws open wider, preventing your molars from hitting.

Canine teeth are the first ones to wear down if you are teeth grinding at night. Once they wear down, you lose the protection they are meant to provide.

your tongue. Look at the sides of your tongue. Teeth grinding at night, can cause indentions in the sides. Clenching teeth can also cause tongue indentions.

your cheeks. The inside of your cheeks could have a white horizontal line or look slightly irritated.

your gums. Teeth grinding can cause gums to recede and teeth to have abfractions near your gum line. Abfractions are grooves or notches in your teeth. You can feel them with your finger nail and see them when they get bigger. Some abfractions are sensitive to cold or touch.

your jaw muscles. The masseter muscles are the ones that flex when you clench your teeth. Put your hands on the sides of your face and feel these muscles, they pop out while clenching.

If you are clenching or grinding teeth at night, these muscles get a major workout. They get bigger and can give your face a fuller look.

Too bad we can't work out our abs while we sleep...:(

Some other signs :

Headaches, neck aches, or ear aches are other signs of grinding and clenching.

After considering the clinical signs of grinding, take a look other factors that contribute to grinding teeth while sleeping.

The best way to know for sure is to have your dentist evaluate your symptoms. It's very easy for a dentist to identify damage from grinding.

If you have obvious damage on your teeth and some other signs of clenching and grinding, follow these tips to stop grinding teeth.

If you have damage from grinding your teeth, but no other symptoms, you may have been a teeth grinder in the past but are not currently.

In that case, closely monitor the wear on your teeth.

Wearing a teeth grinding guard will prevent further damage. So...if I had damage from teeth grinding at night I would wear a teeth grinding guard, just to be sure...

I'll take an ounce of prevention anyday:)

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