About this forum

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The purpose of this forum is to provide sufferers of bruxism (teeth grinding) with a place to discuss the condition and methods of dealing with it.

About teeth grinding
The most common form of teeth grinding is sleep bruxism where the sufferer tightly clenches their teeth in their sleep, sometimes combined with lateral grinding movements. The teeth are put under enormous pressure which can wear away the enamel leading to exposed dentine and eventually teeth breakage. Bruxism is particularly bad if you have expensive dental work as grinding your teeth can destroy dental work as well as your natural teeth. Sleep bruxism also puts great strain on the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) and can cause aching jaw and facial muscles and morning headaches.

About the causes of teeth grinding
The causes of teeth grinding aren't well understood though stress is believed to be an important factor and those with a pre-existing sleep disorder or parasomnia (snoring, sleep apnoea, sleep talking etc..) are at greater risk.

About the treatment of teeth grinding
So far treating bruxism has met with only limited success. Hypnosis seems to help some people but most other proposed treatments are completely unproven. In most cases the best that can be hoped for is to protect the teeth from premature wear though the use of a nightguard. A nightguard (AKA dental guard, occlusal splint) is a special mouth-guard worn at night so that the nightguard is worn down instead of the sufferer's teeth.

About nightguards
Nightguards can be custom made by a dentist although cheaper over-the-counter devices are also available. Over-the-counter devices come with varying designs, varying price tags and varying quality and different nightguards suit different people depending on their bite and the size of their mouth.

About the Teeth Grinding Forum
On this website people can discuss what treatments have worked or not worked for them, which nightguards suit them as well as more general topics. (Such as irritated bed partners!)

The Teeth Grinding Forum is supported by The Bruxism Association but the information it contains represent the views of the individual posters rather than The Bruxism Association. For the association's official advice, please consult www.bruxism.org.uk.