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Grinding Your Teeth At Night? Thankfully, There's A Simple Solution For Sleep Bruxism

by — 2015-09-11 in Ear, Nose, Throat, and Dental problems
I look a bit like a boxer at night now, but at least I'll get to keep my teeth.

About five years ago, I decided to get my periodontal disease operation taken care of in another, cheaper country. When the dental sugeon told me my teeth were showing signs of wear and tear due to nightly grinding, I didn't take it very seriously. She could simply have been out to make more money from a dental tourist, after all, and my dentist back home had never mentioned it.

Fast forward to about a month ago, when I got a new dentist who soon warned me about the nocturnal grinding. Sleep bruxism is actually pretty common. How do you recognize the signs, and what can you do once you've been diagnosed? I'll be telling you all about it, from personal experience.

What's Sleep Bruxism?

Bruxism is an exotic-sounding term for a relatively common condition: grinding or clenching your teeth together. While people do this both during the day and at night, sleep bruxism or nocturnal tooth grinding affects about eight percent of all adults and perhaps as much as a third of kids, if parental reporting is anything to go by. Grinding or clenching your teeth occasionally isn't that bad. If you do it every night, though, the condition comes with a range of unfortunate consequences, which can include:

  • Wearing your teeth out much faster than necessary.
  • Otherwise damaged teeth. They can chip, for example.
  • Jaw disorders.
  • Ear pain.
  • Headaches.
  • Waking your partner up with your grinding noises.
  • Achy face muscles. Really.
  • Injuries to the inside of your cheek.
Unless your partner tells you that you grind your teeth at night, you may not be aware you are doing it — you are asleep while it's happening, after all! 
 
Sleep bruxism is yet another good reason to see your dentist for frequent routine checkups, ideally twice a year. Your dentist will almost certainly recognize the tell-tale signs.

What Causes Nocturnal Tooth Grinding?

There are some indications that life-related stress and anxiety play a role in the development of sleep bruxism. It has not been linked with psychological or psychiatric disorders, though certain medications used to treat those disorders — like some antidepressants and schizophrenia medications — do cause sleep bruxism. Things like drinking, smoking, using recreational drugs, and simply being extremely tired contribute as well. People who grind their teeth at night have a higher chance of also suffering from disorders like sleep apea and snoring. Finally, malocclusions can also lead to bruxism. 
Where stress or other causes are to blame for sleep bruxism, a multifaceted approach that treats the underlying cause as well as preventing grinding is recommended. I do suffer from the occasional bout of stress myself, just like everyone else, but I don't drink much, smoke, use any medication that could contribute to bruxism, or anything like that, so my dentist labeled my bruxism as being primary sleep bruxism, and didn't recommend any treatment except a mouth splint. I'm now the owner of a green contraption that makes me look like a teen with braces. 

Using A Mouth Guard Or Splint For Sleep Bruxism

After my dentist diagnosed me with sleep bruxism, she recommended I use a mouth splint at night to prevent further damage to my teeth. The mouth splint. wasn't covered by insurance in my case, and I haven't received the bill yet, but online research leads me to believe that it will cost between $150 and $400. Your insurance may be different, and might just cover a mouth guard or splint for sleep bruxism.
 
What's the difference between a mouth guard and a splint, you may wonder? A splint is made out of inflexible hard plastic, while a guard is flexible. A splint is more durable, and more expensive. Regardless of whether you are getting a mouth guard or a splint for sleep bruxism, they'll do two things.
 
They even out the pressure across your jaw, and they physically cover your teeth so any grinding motions you do make will not damage them. You can indeed buy mouth guards (which look similar to the ones used by boxers) online or at pharmacies, but you want a custom-made mouth guard or splint for the best results. Custom-made so they fit the patient's teeth like a glove, which prevents them from slipping off your teeth at night.
 
Here's a brief description of the process I went through before getting my mouth splint:
  1. The dentist takes a cast of your upper and lower jaws. This takes about 10 minutes.
  2. Then, the casts are sent off to a technician, who will make the splint.
  3. You'll be invited back to your dentist's office to check whether the splint fits.
  4. If it does, you bring it home and start using it.
My dentist invited me to pick a color for my mouth splint. There were lots of choices, but she advised me to steer clear of transparent, because the splints do get dirty. As you can see in the pictures, I chose green. 
 
I was dreading my first night sleeping with the mouth splint, especially it triggered my gag reflex the first time I put it in, as well as the next few times. I was awfully tired when I went to bed with it the first time. I did place an extra towel on my pillow case because my dentist had warned me about "surplus saliva excretion". I didn't drop off easily, but once I was asleep I woke up at my usual time. The mouth splint doesn't interfere with my sleep, then, but it does feel awkward while you're awake. Not as awkward as having stumps for teeth though, I think.
 
The mouth splint comes in a little box. My dentist advised me to put a little drop of dishwashing liquid into the guard, and then to brush it with a little toothbrush — not the tootbrush you use to brush your actual teeth. Then you rinse it thoroughly to prevent having a foul taste in your mouth when you go to sleep, and place it back in its box until you start using it.
Mouth guards and splints don't cure your sleep bruxism; they just prevent you from doing any damage to your teeth at night. They will have to be replaced occasionally, though their duration depends on how much grinding you do and what your particular guard or splint is like.

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