For many patients with nighttime bruxism (constant teeth-grinding at night), the condition becomes obvious when a sleeping partner complains of the noise. However, the sound of your teeth rubbing against each other isn’t the main worry about bruxism. When left untreated, the condition can cause a host of other problems, including diminished and damaged tooth structure. What bruxism does to your oral health depends on how early you can detect and treat it.
Why You Grind Your Teeth
Modern dental restorations can be custom-designed to address a variety of dental issues, from cracked and fractured teeth to teeth that have become excessively worn down. However, as the cause of such issues, bruxism can damage these restorations as well as your healthy tooth structure. Therefore, restoring your smile will first involve finding out why you grind your teeth, and then addressing the underlying issue to help you stop. For some patients, it can be a symptom of too much daily stress, which can manifest as constantly tense jaw muscles and grinding teeth. For others, it can be the result of an imbalance in the alignment of their teeth and/or jaws.
The Potential Consequences of Bruxism
Besides the noise of grinding your teeth, one of the most obvious consequences of untreated bruxism is increasingly worse damage to your teeth. The pressure of constantly grinding together can weaken your teeth, leading to cracks, fractures, breaks, and more. As a result, your bite can become further imbalanced and develop TMJ disorder, a jaw dysfunction involving damaged, inflamed, or misaligned jaw joints. By treating bruxism and any resulting tooth damage as early as possible, you can improve your chances of avoiding such consequences and having to address them, as well.
Protect Your Smile if You Have Bruxism
If you have bruxism, then you have to proactively protect your smile against the potential dangers it can pose. To learn more, schedule a consultation by calling the My Dentist office in Londonderry, NH, today at (603) 965-3407.
