Here are some more summaries of Teeth Grinding research that has been done. Any thoughts or questions then please let us now. More coming soon…. 
Sleep Study.
A study in 2003 looked at doing polysomnography or sleep studies in patients with possible bruxism who had dental implants. Such patients often had loosening of their implants and misplacement of their implants due to possible bruxing behavior.
A study group was treated to polysomnography to see whether or not the sleep study would be able to identify the night time teeth grinding. In fact, the sleep study was an excellent way to identify bruxism in patients with dental implants.
Presumably, polysomnography would be a good way to detect nocturnal bruxism in patients without implants as well.
Groaning.
Bruxism and nocturnal groaning were compared in a January, 2008, study. Nocturnal groaning is a nocturnal monotonous sound occurring during the expiratory phase of breathing.
While nocturnal groaning is less common than teeth griding, the two behaviors have been found to be closely linked. This means that if a sleep partner notices nocturnal groaning sounds, an evaluation should be undertaken to make sure that undiscovered bruxism doesn’t exist.
Sleep Arousal.
A 1998 study found that bruxism is related to sleep arousal. In normal sleep, there are transient arousals occurring at 20-40 second intervals. During sleep studies of bruxism patients and comparing the studies to controls, it was found that bruxers showed a marked increase in the number of transient sleep arousals during the night.
A total of 88 percent of episodes occurred during non-REM sleep, which is when sleep arousal occurs. Leg jerking was noticed during episodes as well. It appears from this study that bruxers don’t get a solid night’s rest when compared to normal controls.
Bite Splints.
A 1999 study looked at the various bite splints for bruxism and especially looked at the risks of using such splints. It was found that there was a risk of tooth damage when using mandibular (lower jaw) splints for more than a couple of months.
According to the study, the splint should be a temporary measure during which time the patient should be working on stress reduction or the fixing of malocclusion of the teeth. The recommendation didn’t differentiate between the materials used to make the bite splints, which can be made from composite, acrylic or silicon.
A related study indicated that oral splints should be used as temporary crutches for those with bruxism and/or TMJ dysfunction.
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