When a person has bruxism it means they have a problem with clenching their jaw and grinding their teeth while they are sleeping at night. Men, women and children of all ages can develop this condition. Most of the time a person will not even realize they are grinding their teeth in their sleep until they wake up with sore jaw muscles or have someone else tell them. There are actually no known causes of the condition but doctors have made a correlation between high levels of stress and anxiety and the bruxism condition.
The main telltale symptoms of bruxism are a sore jaw in the morning and indentations on the tongue and cheeks. Doctors do know that stress and anxiety is the main cause of a condition like bruxism. Any person dealing with bruxism or even just thinks they may be, should get in to see their doctor right away. This way treatment can be found as quickly as possible and prevent dental and other problems that can be caused by bruxism.
One of the most commonly relied on methods of treatment for bruxism is using a mouth guard to cover and protect the teeth throughout the night. One of the main negative effects of the bruxism condition is that the teeth end up chipped and even broken and so the mouth guard will help to prevent this from happening. Mouth guards are often not used alone but instead in correlation with other treatments for bruxism. Muscle relaxants are often prescribed to patients suffering from this condition so they can take one or two before bed.
This treatment often works well because then the person’s jaw muscles will be more relaxed and they are less likely to grind their teeth in their sleep. When two treatments like these are used together a person will have less to worry about and will not end up even more stressed and anxious worried they are going to cause damage to their teeth overnight. In some cases anti anxiety medications are prescribed. Doctors may have a patient that is suffering from generalized or other anxiety disorder and wan to put them on medication to help ease their feeling of anxiety.
This is also going to help calm them down and keep their muscles relaxed. Doctors treat bruxism on a case to case basis. Treatment is often a long-term thing for a bruxism condition. The most important thing for anyone dealing with bruxism is to get some sort of treatment as soon as possible.
