Hello,
Grinding teeth in medical term is known as Bruxism. It is often accompanied by permanent damage to teeth and chronic jaw pain unless the cause is determined and treated accurately.Other complications include facial pain headaches and mandibular disorders.
The causes include both physical as well as psychological.
- Psychological cuase include stress arising out of work, emotions, competition, suppressed anger or frustation.
- hypoglycemia or low blood sugar levels have also known to cause it which could be a sign of underlying adrenal disorder.
- imbalance of mineral salts such as sodium and potassium
- side effect of antidepressants like zoloft
- neuromuscular disease which is very rare but possible
- dental problems (misalignment of teeth)
- Certain personality types and heredity also find their way in the list of causes
What you can do is
- seek the help of a professional counsellor or a psychotherapist
- go for a dental checkup to ensure your teeth aren't damaged permanently
- Get your mineral levels checked for imbalance of mineral salts
- Avoid fastfood, caffeine,alcoholic beverages and smoking,also hard foods like
- Drink plenty of water (2 litres/day)
- you can apply hot or ice pack on areas of pain
- you can make use of mouth guard which otherwise too will be recommended by your dentist after looking into the dental situation.
Hope all of these have been helpful.
Edited by haloprecious on October 7 2006 at 1:51am
