In the Know for You to Know
You know what it’s like, the house is quiet, your teenager is finally sleeping, and then you hear that nightly nails on a chalk board sound coming from their bedroom. You’re thinking to yourself “Not again, what is going on?”
Teeth grinding is also called clenching or Bruxism, and is quite common especially for teenagers. So what’s a parent to do? The good news is that most teens will stop their teeth grinding habit on their own, so there’s no cause for worry.
But you’re thinking, “What do I do to stop this?”
What Causes Grinding?
You may be worried that your teen is afraid of something, is anxious, stressed, can’t sleep, or is having a nightmare. For some tweens and teens it may be because they are deeply concentrating on something.
However, it can be that their adult teeth are still coming in or their wisdom teeth are pushing against other teeth. When this occurs they try to compensate for the pressure they’re feeling and make their teeth match up.
Sometimes teens grind their teeth because they are deep sleepers. So even if you wake them up, the grinding will continue as they fall back asleep.
Is Grinding A Concern?
Sometimes grinding may persist, and you’re noticing that their teeth don’t have the same shape they did before, or they may look flatter. You may notice chips or cracks on teeth, they may complain about having a lot of headaches, or ear pain, or tenderness around their jaw joint (aka temporomandibular joint or tmj) or their neck muscles.
Depending on the dental age your tween or teen is, your pediatric dentist may not recommend a mouth piece (aka mouth guard) as it can affect how their teeth come into their mouth.
If your child snores that can cause them to grind their teeth and this is something to let your pediatrician know.
Sometimes teeth grinding can be due to pain from an ear infection, this is also something to talk with your pediatrician about.
What Can Parents Do?
As children become tweens and teens they tend to get more stressed out about things, which can show up as grinding during sleep. When they grind their teeth during sleep they aren’t getting the healthy restful sleep they need. Knowing how to respond to our children’s stressors is what helps us to help them.
Alleviating anxiety and stress may mean trying some exercise, looking into finding a hobby, deep breathing exercises, or yoga.
During the day your tween and teen may need to remind themselves to relax, open their mouths and smile. This way their top and bottom teeth aren’t touching so they aren’t grinding. Giving up chewing gum (or at least decreasing its frequency) may also help.
Try starting a relaxing pre-bedtime routine. A warm bath or shower, relaxing music, deep breaths or a good book and putting the phone away may help your child fall asleep in a more calm and relaxed way.
If their jaw or neck muscles hurt, you can give them a warm wet compress to hold to the area that bothers them to relieve the tension in these muscles.
Is There A Cure For Grinding?
For tweens and teens it may be a change in routine to help decrease stress and learning to relax their muscles.
You and your teen can think about establishing a routine to set the stage for peaceful quiet time to encourage healthy sleep and help your child feel relaxed at bedtime.
What approaches have you tried for your tweens and teens teeth grinding? We’d love to know your ideas, what you’ve tried, what’s working for you, what hasn’t worked. Email us at kidstoothhotline@proton.me Like us or Message us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kidstoothhotline
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