Teeth Grinding - San Rafael,CA

Lots of good advice here already. I'm a teeth grinder and I'm 41. I don't know when I started, but I've been a grinder as long as I can recall anyway. I have a mouth guard to help protect my teeth, but that doesn't necessarily help the TMJ grief it causes. Sometimes my grinding gets loud enough to wake my husband, who then wakes me gently to stop. He swears one day there's going to be tooth powder piled on my pillow from it. My near 7 yr old daughter grinds her teeth sometimes too, I've noticed. She too, is getting neck trouble, and I'm starting to wonder if there's a connection. :(

in addition to the night-guard, may i suggest some alternative therapy? I have the same problem with my own teeth grinding and it gets really bad when i am stressed out so i have taken up getting massages, and working on my stress levels through meditation. this may be helpful for your child as well.

J.,

Although I don't have any experience with children grinding teeth, I am an adult who grinds her teeth. The dentist fit me for a mouth piece that I wear at night. It is very similar to the mouth gaurd I wore when I played field hockey, except it is only on my lower teeth. I have seen mouth gaurds, however, at CVS and I am sure they can be fit to your sons teeth the same way. As he might outgrow the grinding, there are complications with this habit. TMJ is a very common problem caused by grinding. I have very slight symptoms which include stabbing pain in the area right under my ear every once and a while. Although I don't want to alarm you , I would definitely try to take preventive measures if I could...

Good Luck,
K.

There is a lot of good advice here. I am also a life-long grinder and it is always aggravated by stress. You can't really stop it, but you can lessen the severity. I see that you're a massage therapist. Maybe you could try to incorporate some relaxation into his bedtime routine. I would also ask another dentist about the night guard. The problem with teeth grinding is not so much the effect it has on the teeth, especially at his age, but what kind of damage it does to the jaw. Seek out as much information as you can and especially see about a second opinion. Best of luck.

You might try finding a rubber mouth piece like boxers and football players wear. If he is ADHD or anything he may not grow out of it. You didn't specify if it is only at night or not. If it is during the day try giving him gum to chew or something like that. Good luck and God Bless.

Dear J.,

Go to another dentist, go on the internet and do some research. But, don't take one dentist's word for it. Maybe he will grind his teeth all of his life - maybe not. Respectfully, the dentist is just guessing, and you and your son are left to still wonder and live with it. C. N.

Same problem with me when I was younger and the dentist said I was too young and would eventually out grow it. Long story short I am 28 years old and suffer chronic pains in my jaw, back and have terrible headaches. This is all due to grinding my teeth. Your son maybe only be grinding his teeth slightly, but eventually will lead to TMJ. Search some dentists who specialize in TMJ and Grinding of teeth. If he needs to wear a night guard, so be it. It will definetly eliminate the teeth from getting worse.

I have been grinding my teeth in my sleep since I was little. I am 27, and I still do it. The dentist had to fit me for a special mouth guard to wear at night so I don't permanently damage my teeth (and it also helps with the terrible headaches I was getting from clamping my jaw so tight).
I hope your son will outgrow it, but if he doesn't just know that dentists have amazing tools out there to help teeth-grinders. The other woman who responded was right - you can't do anything to make him stop grinding his teeth. All you can do is hope that he stops on his own, and if he doesn't just wait until he is old enough for a mouth guard. Good luck!

As a child I used to grind my teeth my mother would say hshe could hear it in the other room it was bad!! the dentist told her to buy a pacifier the big kind that has a large flat surface area it worked every night I would go to sleep and my mother would put it in my mouth after I would go to sleep we made a device similar to a head gear so that it would stay in place all night eventually I didn't need it as often and then it stopped all together

Well i use grind my teeth and my parents could hear it outside my room. The dentist told me that if i didn't stop that i would have to wear a mouth guard. after that i stoped. I think the fact that she told me in my mind helped me stop.

Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to stop your child from grinding his teeth because he does it without knowing it - you can't really extinguish a behavior that a child displays when he conciously has no control over it. The more you draw attention to it, the more likely he is to engage in the grinding - so just ignore it, as horrible a sound as it may be. Myself, my sister, and both parents are all teeth grinders, mostly as children - we all grew out of it eventually, so I wouldn't worry too much. Most of his teeth are likely still all baby teeth, so I also wouldnt worry too much about him damaging his permanent teeth - they are much stronger than baby teeth, and it takes many many many years of grinding to really do any harm.

Try giving him a massage just before bed. I grind. I use natural medicine to relax before bed and that helps. One dentist said the next step for me was muscle relaxants which I am not interested in. Maybe massage would help. I think I grind when I am stressed or worried about something.

I saw this post in my mamasource daily email and just had to reply. I see that all the other moms stole my advice..hehe. I also started grinding when I was 10 or so. My dentist swore I would outgrow it..even through my teens. Now, I have TERRIBLE jaw pain that has recently caused me lots of trouble. My gums back by my molars have sowllen, my tonseld are swelling as well as my lymphnodes in my neck. I am schedualed for oral surgery next month to correct the "misaligned" bones in my jaw. (It's the two bones where my jaw meets to open and close, they get stuck because the muscles are so tense) and I have had back pain for years..all caused BY GRINDING MY TEETH. The muscles eventually get so weak and strained that it can cause a whole heap of other things to go wrong and can even result in a weak immune system (keep in mind it been 15 years with out fixing it). SO it is important to get him some relief before it gets too bad!! Mine is caused by stress and a mouth guard and some good ole' relaxation has done me wonders. He may be stressed and not really be aware of it. Since it ha[[ens in his sleep, he probably doesn't notice the affects of a tight jaw. Once he's not doing it anymore he will see the difference though.
You can even get one of those teeth whitening kits that have the "melt molds" for your teeth and use that. Just heat it and have him bite down. I overlapped two of them and made my own guard until the doc gave me one.
Good Luck