Bruxism Naples, FL

Bruxism Symptoms and Diagnosis

Many people with bruxism don’t know that they have the condition. They often learn about it when someone else reports that they are grinding their teeth, especially at night. If people tell you this, you should look for other symptoms of bruxism, including:

Tooth damage is one of the most common symptoms of bruxism. You may notice that your teeth are flatter than they used to be or experience chips and cracks in your teeth. You may not be able to see the damage but might feel it in sensitive teeth.

Your tongue can get a scalloped appearance because it’s often pushing against your teeth when you clench. You might also bite your cheeks.

You might also notice symptoms from the exertion of jaw muscles. Your muscles might be tired or sore. You might feel this from your neck to your forehead because your jaw muscles dominate this entire region.

Also, pay attention to other TMJ symptoms, including joint popping and clicking, ear-related symptoms, and more.

A dentist can diagnose bruxism by listening to your symptoms and examining your teeth and jaw. A Naples neuromuscular dentist might also recommend tests utilizing the K-7 jaw analysis technology and ULF-TENS. These tests will help them identify TMJ. A side effect of TENS is that it can give immediate pain relief for tense jaw muscles.

Complications of Bruxism

If you notice symptoms of bruxism, it’s essential to get treatment. If you don’t treat your condition, you might experience:

• Tooth damage
• Headaches and other pain
• TMJ

Bruxism can cause excessive damage to your teeth. Often, bruxers clench and grind with many times more force than you ever use when biting into and chewing food. In addition, there’s no food between your teeth, which instead impacts each other directly. Sometimes, people get restorations to repair tooth damage in the early stages of bruxism, but if you don’t take steps to counter bruxing, those restorations will also be destroyed. It’s crucial to control this condition before considering full mouth reconstruction.

As long as your bruxism goes untreated, you will continue to experience pain in your head, face, and neck. This pain can persist even when you aren’t grinding your teeth and can disrupt your daily routine.

TMJ can cause bruxism, but bruxism can also cause and worsen TMJ. The result can be a vicious cycle in which TMJ leads to more teeth grinding and clenching, and bruxism worsens TMJ, which causes bruxism to worsen. TMJ treatment can break this cycle before it ends up destroying your jaw joints.

Bruxism Treatment

Although bruxism can cause severe damage, it is also treatable. Here are some of the treatments that can help.

Home Care

If your symptoms are mild, you can start treating teeth clenching at home. One thing you can try is to reduce your stress. There are many stress reduction techniques available to try. See if any of these will work for you.

Another way to address bruxism is to cut down on stimulants like caffeine and nicotine. If you notice that you’re clenching your teeth during exercise, scale back your routine or get coaching to learn better techniques that can protect your teeth.

Night Guard

Your dentist can fit you with a night guard. This will protect your teeth from damage while you try to track down the cause of bruxism and find effective treatment.

Sleep Apnea Treatment

If you’re a sleep bruxer, you should get tested for sleep apnea, especially if you have symptoms of sleep apnea, such as daytime sleepiness.

Sleep apnea treatment will help control teeth grinding by keeping your airway open so you don’t have to clench your jaw. Although sleep doctors will often recommend continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for sleep apnea, a sleep dentist can treat the condition with a comfortable, convenient oral appliance, which can also protect your teeth from damage.

Behavioral Therapy

It’s easy to say, “Reduce your stress,” but it’s rarely easy to do alone. Behavioral therapy is an approach to stress reduction that has a good track record for bruxism treatment. Your therapist will help you learn techniques to manage stress. This might include tools like biofeedback, which can teach you effective stress management.

A therapist can also help you counter teeth-grinding habits that you do unconsciously. If you grind your teeth absent-mindedly while thinking or working, a therapist can help you find ways to modify the pattern.

Medication and Medication Changes

Some medications can help control clenching & grinding if therapy isn’t effective. Other times, if your medication is the cause, you might be able to change your prescription to control side effects.

Even if you suspect a medication is causing your grinding, don’t modify what you’re taking without consulting your doctor first. Changing your medication suddenly can cause serious complications.