Bruxism is the term we use for excessive clenching and grinding of teeth. It is a very common cause of jaw pain. Bruxism doesn’t just impact the jaw joint (the temporomandibular joint), it can cause damage to the back teeth. Night-guards can prevent damage to both the jaw and teeth.
What is bruxism?
Excessive teeth grinding and jaw clenching is known as bruxism. The most common cause is stress and, as it mostly happens at night when asleep, it’s quite hard to consciously stop. Bruxism can cause damage to the back teeth especially if consistent over a long period of time. Heavy bruxers especially can wear their teeth down to the point that the teeth are in need of restorative work. Other long term damage includes fractured teeth, gum and bone damage, shoulder and neck pain.
If you suffer from bruxism, an affordable and reliable way to protect your teeth is with a night-guard. These are custom-made plastic moulds that fit over your bottom teeth to protect the surfaces and your jaw. As it relieves the impact on the jaw, a night-guard can help prevent any jaw issues from exacerbating, such as TMD (temporomandibular disorder).
Restoring teeth affected by grinding
We can repair damage to the back teeth using composite bonding for the bite surfaces, improving the general bite and protecting the teeth from further damage. For extensive damage, we can use fillings and crowns.