Bruxism Treatment

Bruxism is an unintentional oral habit that will occur in most people at some time in their lives. This is typically characterized by grinding teeth or clenching the jaw. These actions do not use those body parts for what they were designed for and thus cause further strain. They generally occur when the individual is sleeping and is thus unaware that they are even doing it all.

Bruxism is one of the most common sleep disorders affecting many people. Chewing is a muscular activity that is done subconsciously. When asleep one’s subconscious can become very active while conscious thought is inactive, this is what causes bruxism. Common symptoms include earaches, headaches anxiety, eating disorders, chronic stress and even depression.

We use a device called a BiteStrip^® to help us diagnose bruxism in your home. It has the ability to detect even minor activity in jaw muscles during sleep and monitor them. This information allows us to fully assess and evaluate the problem and develop a specific treatment to remedy it.

Why seek treatment for Bruxism?

There is no known cure for bruxism but there are a wide variety of services and devices available to help treat the problem.

Mouthguard’s can be designed to prevent some of the damage from the grinding during sleep. For them to be effective they have be worn over a long period of time to prevent the damage.

An NTItss device only covers the front teeth and must be fitted specifically for you at our office. The concept behind it is to prevent the grinding of the rear molars by placing a limit on how much contraction of the temporalis muscle can move, limiting jaw movement.

Botox® can also be injected into the muscles that cause Bruxism again limiting their movement and thus preventing the grinding. However not so much is used as to effect normal functions like speaking or chewing.

Once the problem of bruxism is successfully mitigated we can get work restore your smile, with crowns, gum grafts and crown lengthening.