How to help bruxism (teeth clenching / grinding)
Anyone else been grinding their way through the last (almost) 2 years? Every single night, all night, then feeling the effects in the morning?
Me too apparently. Confirmed by the dentist last week who is suggesting I need a rather expensive mouth guard as a result of all the wear and tear to my teeth.
Photo by Hana Lopez on Unsplash
Bruxism is defined as grinding or clenching (usually at night). It can be rather problematic because it can cause pain and / or wear and tear to the teeth. It is one of the many more ‘secondary’ symptoms connected to covid. The most common trigger? You’ve guessed it, it’s stress just for a change.
To make things worse, bruxism can cause referred jaw, ear, teeth, head and neck pain. I have personally also suffered tinnitus as a result of all this.
Pay attention to whether you teeth and gums feel tender when you wake or if your jaw hurts. You may also get cracks in the teeth or indents on your tongue.
Whilst I agreed with my dentist that I need a mouth guard to reduce damage to the teeth, I politely declined the botox injections into the jaw. These are both essentially sticking plasters (one less neurotoxic than the other).
Here are 5 other suggestions to tackle the root cause more naturally:-
Increase magnesium rich foods (natures tranquilliser) and consider a good quality magnesium supplement (the biglycinate form). Magnesium is essential to the functioning of the central nervous system and the body uses more when we are stressed so increasing your intake may ease your feelings of stress but also help your sleep (easing feelings of stress further). Putting a few cups of Epsom salts in your bath are another nice and easy way to absorb magnesium or alternatively, if you’re not a bath person, ‘Better you’ do a nice magnesium and lavender spray.
Avoid over stimulation before bed. Try to avoid any source of caffeine after lunchtime and consider what sort of emotional over stimulation you can avoid too. I would suggest Modern Family is much more likely to comfort you right now than the Squid Games or Handmaids tale! Try to avoid any heated, emotive discussions at this time too. Turning your phone onto silent at 7/8pm has really helped me to avoid this along with any social media triggers - please try it out and let me know if it helps.
Write your worries down before sleep. This really does help transfer your worries from your head to your paper. Especially as we may not even be aware that something is bothering us until we do this exercise. If you find your worries are consuming you, a counsellor is well worth the investment.
After this, try a meditation to help shift your mind to a nicer subject and away from your worries before you drift off to sleep. I love the ’Nothing much happens’ podcast which features bedtime stories for grown ups. The granular detail of the stories really helps to get out of the head and into the body for the night.
Find a really good Osteopath who can help you with direct manipulation of the masseter muscle and surrounding areas and also help you with any referred pain, look at any postural imbalances and give you some exercises to support your recovery. Finding someone who also does cranial osteopathy is quite important.
Book a free introductory call to discuss working together on this or any other health issue.