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Teeth Grinding in Children - Bruxism |
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by matthew  (April 2006) (rank 57th) |
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Why do they grind?
Bruxism (a.k.a. teeth grinding) appears to be happening more often in children. Grinding of teeth is a strange occurrence that dentists are not really able to explain – some get it and some don’t without any particular reason. Some possible issues
which may give rise to grinding include new contact between teeth (upper and lower), poorly placed fillings or crowns, intestinal parasites (uurgh), nutritional deficiencies or even psychological factors like stress. In children it is most often explained by their “getting used to having new teeth”…
Most often teeth grinding happens during sleep however, (particularly with Children) it can happen during the day. If it happens at night the “grinder” may not be aware of it except for some sore jaw muscles or some tell-tale wear which a dentist could find.
What to do about it?
For young children who have not yet lost their baby teeth many dentists will say “Do nothing, just tune out the sound if it troubles you”, because it takes a lot of grinding to wear out teeth and children teeth only last a few years.
The key message here is RELAX! It may sound awful and get you very concerned but your child is likely just getting used to new teeth and is unlikely to do any kind of serious damage on baby teeth – it is a common concern for parents. Having said this if your child is really suffering pain from his/her teeth then you should immediately consult a dentist. Just the sound of grinding should not be a prompt for such a concern though and normally child tooth grinding will ease up on its own over a short time.
Recent studies have found that teeth grinding may be associated with bed wetting and other night-time disturbances. One suggestion from that study is to ensure your child is well hydrated (with water not just milk) prior to going to bed as this reduces the sodium levels in the blood and actually lessens the likelihood of bed-wetting as well as tooth grinding (note this is from study results not personal experience!).
If your child has got their adult teeth then it is more of an issue and you should consider checking in to your dentist to monitor the situation and to check for any mal-aligned teeth.
Hope this helps!
I even started to get headaches which my Dr put down to muscle tension in my jaws due to grinding. I've found that it coincides with periods of stress - the two definitely go together in my case.
