TeethGrindingGuide.com

A lot of people suspect they grind their teeth, but aren’t 100% sure. After all they are asleep when it’s supposed to be happening. So here is a guide on how to find out if you are suffering from night time teeth grinding or not.

The simplest way to diagnose night time teeth grinding is simply to notice yourself doing it. Quite possibly why you are on this blog in the first place.

But it is very easy to not notice this in yourself  and it is VERY risky not to do anything about it. So here are some ways of diagnosis :

• Do you have a family history of grinding teeth in sleep?

• Are you under a great deal of job or life stress?

• Do you sleep walk or do you have nightmares at night?

• Do you clench your teeth when you are angry?

• Do you drink a great deal of caffeine or eat a lot of chocolate?

• Do you smoke?

• Do you drink alcohol, particularly in the evening?

• Do you use cocaine or Ecstasy?

• Do you work the graveyard shift?

• Do you take antidepressants like SSRIs?

• Are your teeth out of alignment?

• Do you snore or do you have blocked nasal passages?

If you answered yes to three or more of these questions, it is a possibility that you suffer from some degree of teeth grinding.

One of the biggest problems with teeth grinding during sleep is that it is a subconscious behavior so that unless someone tells the person that they grind their teeth; or unless the person themselves has an awareness of the condition, it often goes undiagnosed.

The best way to diagnose teeth clenching is a good dental exam, looking for signs of wear on the teeth, particularly on the chewing surfaces of the teeth.  Fractured teeth can be seen as well.

In some cases, nocturnal bruxism can be diagnosed by doing a sleep study where the individual is monitored while sleeping.  The tooth grinding can be picked up just by watching the individual as he or she sleeps.  The dentist can identify misaligned teeth, which is a common cause.

A simple way of diagnosing night teeth grinding is through the use of something called a BiteStrip. It is an in-home device that can help diagnose the condition before it does damage to the teeth.  The device is a miniature electromyogram machine (the machine that creates ‘dive bomber’ sound) that can sense jaw muscle activity while a patient is sleeping.
The dentist can use the outcome of the test to detect the frequency of the bruxing and the test can therefore diagnose the disease.

The diagnosis is not always easy unless an individual is observed doing the behavior.

The dentist can find signs of it, including flattening of the bite surface of the teeth, indentations of the tongue, or tooth sensitivity due to exposure of the dentin of the teeth.

While you may think it is pretty easy to ’self diagnose’, like any medical problem it’s always best to check with a health care professional.