If you wake up with a sore jaw or experience an annoying headache when you don’t recall any reason for it, teeth grinding (bruxism) may be involved. Most people think the reason for teeth grinding is being too stressed out or not sleeping well the night before. However, it is commonly associated with TMJ disorder and frequently people do not recognize the serious relationship between the two.
This blog will help you to understand this relationship in simple terms.
Teeth grinding (bruxism) puts an immense amount of pressure on the jaw muscle and the connecting structures of the TMJ. The TMJ is designed to function smoothly and with controlled movement, not with constant pressure. So, when you repeatedly grind your teeth, you create excessive pressure on the TMJ, which affects its overall function.
Over time, that pressure can create:
In other words, bruxism does not only lead to damage to the teeth, but it also destabilizes the entire jaw system.
The cycle begins when you grind your teeth (bruxism) and damage the jaw joint. When the jaw is damaged, it remains unstable and causes the muscle tension that leads to more grinding. When these two conditions (TMJ and bruxism) interact, the tension in your jaw and the joint creates a vicious cycle wherein:
Because of this cycle, many people believe their TMJ symptoms are getting worse because they aren’t getting better.
If you’re experiencing TMJ Dysfunction and grinding your teeth, your symptoms may include:
None of the above symptoms are ‘random’. They are responses by the body’s mechanism from the strain put on the jaw system by grinding and problems associated with the jaw joint.
Grinding your teeth at night does much more damage than just causing wear and tear to your teeth. The additional pressure that you put on your teeth through grinding while sleeping, as opposed to while awake, is significantly greater. In fact, your body goes through different stages of sleep during the night and the muscles that are responsible for your jaw opening and closing do not completely relax during these stages. Because of this constant pressure from your teeth grinding at night, the jaw joint does not have time to recover. The inflammation and dysfunction in the jaw joint builds up gradually over time without you even knowing it.
The issue with grinding your teeth at night is much not a dental problem. It is also a mechanical issue relating to how your jaw and teeth interact with each other. It is common for people to think that their grinding issues relate only to their dental health. They think when a dentist treats the teeth, they will no longer experience the grinding problems.
If you are not addressing the mechanical side of your jaw system when treating your teeth, it is very likely that you will continue to experience the grinding and TMJ symptoms in some other form.
By considering the grinding of your teeth in relation to the jaw joint, you will change the focus from just treating the symptoms to treating the root causes of the problem. Instead of asking, ‘What can I do to stop grinding my teeth?’ a more appropriate question would be, ‘What is causing my jaw system to be under stress from grinding my teeth in the first place?’ By addressing this question, you will begin to see real improvement.
Tooth grinding (bruxism) and discomfort in the jaw, tension in the face and sore ears indicate there is more than just a superficial solution to your problems. Dr. Luis’s goal is to find the underlying mechanical dysfunction of TMJ , i.e., how the patient’s:
All of this will help him to treat these patients effectively.
Understanding how the TMJ works is vital to identify the driver of the problem and develop a long-term plan to restore stability rather than relying on a temporary fix.