Breaking Down Bruxism: What It Is, Treatments, and Cures

patient suffering from bruxism teeth clenching grinding

How Does Bruxism Affect Your Life?

The physical damage that severe bruxism does to the mouth is not reversible — your enamel and gums will not grow back. This means that the wear of bruxism will lead to heightened pain, soreness, and sensitivity in both the more strain is afflicted. Furthermore, as stated above, this pain can lead to a cascading series of greater pains.

TMD can limit mouth mobility; this exacerbates the chewing difficulty, and only serves to worsen the muscle strain of bruxism. Furthermore, the physical bruxism and TMD strain is often exacerbated by psychological strains, as broad clinical consensus has associated it with:

Mental health issues (particularly stress and anxiety)
Night terrors (often driven by mental health disorders)
Drug abuse (particularly stimulants that overact the bite muscles)
Sleep apnea (clenching constricts the airways)

If you suspect that your bruxism is related to these underlying issues, we strongly recommend addressing them with the help of an experienced behavioral health counselor. Therapy can help you lessen the anxieties and/or taper off any addictions that could be worsening bruxism.

This straining doesn’t just put a grind down on your teeth; it can also put a serious grind down on your quality of life.

How to Treat Bruxism

Unfortunately, the pre-existing damage of bruxism can seldom be undone, but that doesn’t mean that you have to sit by and let it deal more damage. Wearing an occlusal guard at night (or during the day if necessary) will offer relief.

Like a bike helmet for your head, an occlusal guard will create a protective barrier for your teeth, shielding them from trauma and dispersing blunt force. Additionally, they can stabilize or “deprogram” the muscle movements that lead to bruxism. You can order these guards over the counter, but for the best results, we advise obtaining them through a licensed dentist or orthodontist.

An experienced oral health professional has the resources to create the ideal custom fit for your guard and determine the best type of occlusal guard for your diagnosis. To evaluate the severity of your Bruxism, the oral healthcare professional may:

Feel for tenderness around your jaw or mouth muscles
Examine for enamel damage or malocclusions
Observe the mouth structure with imaging (x-rays)

Once it is determined that bruxism and/or TMD issues are present, the treating dentist or orthodontist will typically then determine the best occlusal guard by testing the bite and testing your personal fit. Certain occlusal guards work better for treating certain discomforts or levels of discomfort than others. Besides appliance wear, it may be recommended that you seek these additional treatments:

Pain, muscle relaxant, or psychiatric medications (if severe enough)
Physical stretching exercises to relax the mouth muscles
Botox injections
Changing drug and dietary habits
Orthognathic surgery (to correct jaw & bite alignment, if necessary)

Can Bruxism Be Cured?

In children, mild bruxism can typically dissipate on its own as they grow older, and most adults don’t grind or clench frequently enough to demand treatment, but there’s no one-size-fits-all miracle cure for bruxism. Still, even if you are one of those more severe cases, those remedies can work wonders to relieve symptoms and reduce case severity.

An orthodontist or dentist wouldn’t be able to handle the above remedies. It would be great if there was a one-stop shop to meet every single one of those potential needs, but just as bruxism creates multifaceted issues, it may need to be met with multifaceted solutions. Those multifaceted solutions may require exercises, pharmaceuticals, therapy sessions, radical lifestyle changes, and surgical procedures if severe enough.

Multiple people across multiple health specializations may factor into your treatment, but at the end of the day, the most important person in treating your bruxism is you. These professionals will offer you highly effective tools, but it comes down to you being proactive and putting those tools to effective use.