Are You Subconsciously Grinding? Sensitivity to heat and cold. Loosened teeth, fractures, and debilitating headaches. All this can occur while you sleep—from grinding your teeth. Dentistry calls it bruxism. Talk about shell shock. Dentists see evidence of life in the fast lane every day. As many as 90 percent of us grind our teeth each […]
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Your Teeth Age Too!
Special Concerns for Older Adults Along with those gray hairs and inevitable smile lines, your mouth undergoes natural changes over the years, as well. Among them: Cutting edges of teeth are worn flat by chewing or grinding. Remember to keep regularly scheduled hygiene appointments to check for cavities. Consider dental sealants to prevent decay, or […]
Mystery Pain & Phantom Toothache
There’s only one good thing about a visibly damaged tooth: here, clearly, is where the pain’s coming from and where our response will be focused. But complaints of “tooth pain” without a clear source or origin—now, that’s something else entirely. Say you’ve been good with your hygiene, faithful in your checkups, and you wake up […]
Nighttime Grinding
And the Stress Factor Dentists and researchers aren’t completely agreed about the cause of nightly tooth-grinding or bruxism. But they are aligned on two points: at least partly, it’s related to daily stress, and it’s happening to more people. It may sound funny, but it’s no joke: without food to absorb the impact, teeth can […]
Bruxism, the Unknown Habit
It’s such a common habit, yet most of the time we never know we’re doing it. Not cracking your knuckles or biting fingernails, but intense clenching and grinding of your teeth—known in dental terminology as bruxism. The reason this phenomenon goes unnoticed so often is that “grinders” usually perform when they’re sleeping. Most research agrees […]
Bad Oral Habits Explained
Tooth-related habits, too, can be conscious (brushing and flossing) or unconscious—chewing on pencils, for example. Dental habits become bad when teeth are expected to do things they’re not cut out for—opening bottles, chewing off the little plastic tags on new clothing, trimming nails, and so on. And bad dental habits can be downright dangerous. To […]
Bruxism – Grinding and Clenching
What is Bruxism? Bruxism is the technical term for grinding and clenching that wears down teeth and may cause facial pain. People who grind and clench, called bruxers, unintentionally bite down too hard at inappropriate times, such as in their sleep. In addition to grinding teeth, they also may bite their fingernails, pencils and chew […]