Causes Of Grinding Teeth

Teeth grinding or bruxism is the act of clenching of your teeth consciously or unconsciously either during the day or while you are asleep. In old days, people never gave attention to this problem because they considered it as just a habit. Nowadays, teeth grinding or bruxism is accepted as a dental problem. It affects both the teeth and all the structure near those teeth, including the head. It usually happens during sleep. Teeth grinding is of two kinds. If a person grinds his teeth during the sleep, this disorder is called as ‘bruxism’. If a person keeps grinding his teeth even when he is awake it is considered as ‘bruxomania’. You should understand that this is not because of excessive chewing habits and should take proper treatment to cure this disorder . Untreated cases can lead to loss of tooth structure, sensitive teeth symptoms, and irreversible temporomandibular joint problems. Read on the article to know more about the causes of grinding teeth.

Anxiety is the one of the most common teeth grinding causes. When the body is exposed to constant stress it often takes recourse to indirect solution for solving that and teeth grinding happen to be one of those solutions. Stress can lead to ‘bruxomania’ and ‘bruxism’ which could be one the causes of teeth grinding at night. 

Malocclusion is also a reason for teeth grinding. Malocclusion is a state of misalignment of teeth and it can also be the incorrect relation between the teeth of the two dental arches. This dental problem is often seen in children during their growing years. It is observed that malocclusion is common among children of nine to thirteen years old. In some rare cases, when the person grows, the jaw also gets developed according to that and may attempt to reach its normal position of occlusion and may end up in teeth grinding. In some cases, this finally becomes a habit even after the jaw growth stops.

TMJ syndrome can be defined as chronic inflammation of the temporomandibular joint. This joint connects the mandible to the skull. The disorder and resultant dysfunction can result in significant pain and impairment. This disorder can lead to teeth grinding. In most cases, when a patient suffers from the TMJ syndrome, he inclines to have issues with occlusion. It leads to the inability to occlude the lower and upper jaws in a permanent position, which leads to teeth grinding and pain. Dislocated joint, ankylosis, poor bite alignment, trauma, and hyper mobility are some other problems which lead one to teeth grinding. A person with ankylosis usually has decreased mouth opening, which can induce the teeth to occlude and it leads to constant teeth grinding in sleep.

Studies have proved that teeth grinding or bruxism can be caused as a side effect of any other diseases such as Huntington disease or Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system which badly affects a person’s motor skills.Motor skill can be defined as the learned sequence of movements that combine to produce a smooth and efficient actions in order achieve or finish a particular task. Huntington's disease is a neurological disorder which caused teeth grinding.