Clenching Teeth at Night - Why You Need to Stop it Now!

Clenching teeth at night is something more of us do than we realize. Clenching or grinding the teeth without knowing is also known as bruxism, and sleep bruxism means we do it in the night - affecting our sleep, our spouse's sleep, our stress levels, our general well being and the health of our teeth!

What's Wrong With Clenching Teeth At Night?

If you or your partner has noticed your clenching your teeth in your sleep then it's important you take action. Although many people ignore the problem, thinking it simply doesn't matter, the truth is that it can become very serious if you don't do anything about it.

Some of the short term effects you might notice include:

• You'll be three times more likely to suffer from headaches,


• You might get aches in your face muscles and jaw,


• You could find it difficult to open your mouth completely,


• Ear ache,


• Disruption of your sleep,


• Disrupting your partner's sleep,


• Receding gums,


• Tightness or stiffness in the shoulders,


• Teeth movement.

These short term effects of clenching teeth at night are bad enough in themselves - you might become more irritable, more stressed, and less able to function properly both in your job and in your social life - all of which can even make the grinding worse, making it a vicious cycle.

However, if you don't do anything about it then you might start to experience more serious long term problems:

• You could develop temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) which means problems with the jaw joint,


• And eventually your teeth will wear away and could break,


• You might even have to pay for costly repairs to restorative teeth work.

So if you still think you don't need to do anything about it - think again!

Take Action Starting Now

The first thing you can do is visit the dentist to make completely sure that bruxism is what you have. In some cases, the cause of it can be an underlying condition which will need to be treated first.

However, in the majority of cases it's simply stress and anxiety and excess energy building up in the body, which means you need to work on yourself if you really want to get to the bottom of your clenching and stop teeth grinding.

Most dentists will recommend you wear a mouth guard. This is useful for clenching at night, as you do it without realising and the guard will protect against wearing away of the teeth. But this is only a short term solution - many people find that it still doesn't end the stress, and some may even bite through their mouth guard!