TMJ And Bruxism Problems
Shawnee, KS
 You may have heard several times that you worry too much. A lot of us do. You may make jokes about your anxiety, and you may think that your worries are a funny little personality quirk, but worrying takes an enormous toll on you and your body. One of the first places worrying shows up is in your mouth. A lot of mouth and jaw problems are caused by worrying, and marks you as a person with anxiety.
One of the things that people do when they are anxious is clench or grind their teeth at night. Millions of Americans clench or grind their teeth each night. Bruxism can cause real problems for your mouth. Bruxism can also cause issues with your temporomanibular joint (TMJ), also called your jaw joint. These jaw issues can lead to TMD, which is a jaw joint disorder. If you think that you may have bruxism, or you are having problems with your jaw joint, Fay Periodontal Associates give you the facts about TMJ and bruxism.
How Is Bruxism Related to TMJ?
People with bruxism clench or grind their teeth at night when they are sleeping. People who grind their teeth move their teeth around while they sleep. As many as 40 million people grind their teeth at night, or they clench them. If you clench your teeth, you are putting additional pressure on your teeth and jaw muscles each night. Out of those 40 million Americans who have bruxism, 10% have a serious enough case of bruxism that it causes trouble with their jaws or teeth.
The issue of bruxsim can lead to jaw joint problems. If you develop TMD, your jaw gets misaligned. This leads to pain in your jaw. Sometimes, the pain can be severe. You could have problems when you open or close your jaw. You may notice that your jaw feels tight. It could also feel locked, which means you may not be able to open or close your jaw when you want. This affects the position your jaw can take as well. We can help you treat your TMD with medication, anti-inflammatories and sometimes physical therapy. However, we also know that the best way to treat TMD is not to have it at all.
What Can I Do If I Have Bruxism?
We can help you with your bruxism with treatment. If you get your bruxism treated, we can keep the damage to your teeth and jaws to a minimum. This will also save any dental work, such as crowns or veneers, that you may have. There are other things that you can do in order to treat bruxism.
The best thing that you can do for yourself and your teeth is to work on reducing your stress level. If you have less anxiety, your jawbone relaxes, which means you are not as likely to clench or grind your teeth while you are sleeping. We can also fit you with a nightguard. You can wear a nightguard when you sleep so that you don’t grind or clench your teeth. If you need a harder guard, because you may already have damage to your teeth, we can fit you with a bite splint that keeps your jaw in place, which prevents you from clenching or grinding your teeth.
Worried that you have bruxism? Let us help. Give our team at Fay Periodontal Associates a call at (913) 268-9300. |
