There was a study that shows that 60% to 70% of the population grinds their teeth and they know about it, and the other 30 to 40% of the population grinds their teeth and they don't know about it!
so I guess, long story short, it goes to show that everybody actually grinds their teeth.
“Now, is that a problem?” Well I guess, yes and no.
If you don't, I guess just with anything in life, if you do anything minimally, it's not too bad however, if it's excessive and it's too much, it becomes an issue so going back to grinding, if it's very little bit of grinding and then that should be okay as long as it doesn't damage any of the surrounding teeth, but if it grinds a lot more, and it starts causing issues like teeth getting shorter, teeth getting ground down because you think about it, you grinding down, you lose the protective layering of the tooth on the outside and then you reveal the most sensitive bits inside so things are going to get a little bit more sensitive there.
Now there are some cases where, I still remember this lady that she couldn't even touch ice cream for as long as she can remember, anytime she pops something cold or even just something, a cup of water, that's a little bit cooler than usual would just go, "Oh! I just don't want to go near it!" And because of that, she avoided food and it obviously stopped her from enjoying life in general.
In cases like that, sensitivity has gone to a level where it's become painful and it's made her avoid some types of foods which, it's debilitating to anybody.
I have seen cases where as you know as well with all the grinding will cause teeth to break as well and if it's a small chunk then it's easily fixable but if it's a big chunk then that's a different story.
I guess, to talk about how do we fix bruxism or grinding really comes down to, I suppose, let's start off by talking about what might be causing grinding in the first place.
Look, scientists still couldn't put their finger on as to exactly what causes, this causes that, but there are correlations or links to stress, of course, as you're going through stress or depending on going through stress, you start grinding your teeth a little bit more, you start putting a bit more pressure.
I mean, there are other factors like preexisting teeth as well, maybe sometimes as to which side you favor chewing on, or maybe there are some cases where people have missing teeth and if you think about it, you've got missing teeth say on the left side, they can only chew on the right side and then that's all the one side's coping all the work and using, doing all the work there so obviously, it's going to grind down a lot quicker than usual.
I suppose then, what do we do to fix it then?
Now, I guess there's a couple of options and of course, this advice is just general in nature and without me seeing how your teeth are actually like, it's a bit hard to tell you exactly what we can do about, what works for you, but I guess, here goes, here are the several general options that we implement to your tooth having to address the grinding and the first being leaving it.
Well, grinding, like I said, everybody grinds, it's just a degree, it's just a matter of how much or how severe you grind your teeth and some cases you can leave it and there's no issues with that, I guess the good thing is there's no cost in doing that and provided that your local professional or your dentist takes photos of your teeth so that they can monitor over time and assess whether there's a need to do anything about it or not then it's a bit hard so at Tooth Heaven, we do take photos at every visit, at every of your six months visit, so we can at least have some sort of record as to what is going on.
- Do Nothing:
- So, I guess the good thing about leaving is there's no cost, but the problem is if it does get worse and I'm always a fan of prevention is better than cure, as we all know 'cause with all the, we don't want to wait till 10, 20, 30 years down the line and where it's too far gone and then when that's the case, not only you feel pain, not just physically, but also pockets wise as well, because the cost is going to be a lot more simply because it's harder to fix so more is needed to fix it then and, it's like I mentioned, the other downside can make you not enjoy life the way you should enjoy.
- Night Guards:
- Night guards come in many forms, come in many types of materials, come in many different types of hardness and hence longevity.
- PROS: cheaper and it's quicker.
- CONS: shorter, medium term sort of solution
- if you think about it, you're only wearing it night, I mean, you can't walk around during the day with something in your mouth, I mean, not only you can't talk properly, you can't even eat with it on so and apart from the looks of course, just stating the obvious, but, I guess the downside is to like it's only protecting your teeth at night, how about during the day then?
You're only sleeping about seven, eight hours a night well, on average, and in most of the 24 hours you spend during the day so if grinding happens during the day, the night guard just buys you time, and it's just a matter of time before it gets worse. So it's kind of, I like to say, we're taking our chances there.
- Botox:
- traditionally is it gets rid of wrinkles and frown lines and all that sort of thing but I suppose how it works, is it freezes the muscles and so it doesn't contract or fold in a lot easier so, it's the same goes for the muscles of the mouth,
- if you pop Botox on either side of the masseter muscle or the other muscles of chewing, it will sort of freeze the muscle, now that being said, of course you can still chew, you can still eat, you can still talk, the only difference is you probably can't squeeze as tight as you would normally
- PROS: Quick and not removable, so its working 24/7
- CONS: longevity 6-8 months, will require top ups which can become costly
- Full Mouth Rehabilitation
- Placing certain materials over the top to replace whatever is missing and worn down, and that will thicken up the teeth or sort of put a protective layer over the top so it actually protects the teeth there.
- Cost varies from 000’s to 0000’s of dollars, as well as longevity, months to years or decades
- PROS: potentially lasting a long time (depending on after care) and will protect your teeth 24/7
- CONS: number of appointments & cost
- Now, depending on the materials again, depending on how bad or how much you need to build up on, it might take two visits to as long as even five to six visits there so it could take you weeks or months to complete the whole thing.
- I guess the other downside is the cost again because as I mentioned is the, again, depending on the materials could be as cheap as hundreds of dollars to even as much as thousands of dollars there. But I guess the good thing is if you think about it, you have a protective layer over the top and as long as you maintain that and look after it, that should stay with you and that will protect your teeth 24/7 and if the, depending on the material you choose, some will last for decades there so you don't have to worry about it, you chew as per normal, you eat as per normal and not having injections in the face, and not worrying about teeth being worn down and obviously that would fix the pain and sensitivity if you do experience any as well.
There are other options like as I mentioned earlier, some of the causes are missing teeth so then the solution is putting teeth back and in another video which I'll cover on next time, we'll talk a little bit more about how we put teeth back in, but generally, there are many ways of putting teeth back in and it varies in terms of costs and time and all that sort of thing, again, which I'll touch on in the next video.
But I guess, the downside of that is most times is the additional costs as well as the extra time, on top of that as well. You have to think about it.. yes, you're fixing the cause using that but you got to fix the problem as well so there are parts of teeth that are worn down which might need some buildups at the same time and or night guards, whichever one you choose.
I guess the good thing about that is that again, we're fixing, I'm always a fan of not just fixing the problem, you should fix the cause because if you just fixing the problem and the cause is always there, it's going to keep, the problem's going to keep repeating itself over and over and over again so you're going to be coming in to see the dentist every couple of months with the same problem.
Then I guess the last option would be, it's a no brainer, it's a combination so you can use night guards combined with Botox or you can use Botox combined with mouth rehabs, you can have mouth rehabs, night guards and all sorts of things so to discuss about what's better for you and to work out what your, what fits your condition and what really is effective in your case,
the best thing to do would be to book yourself in to have a consult with your local professional or in Tooth Heaven, you'll be seeing any on of our dentists here and we'll be able to go through in depth as to what options are available to you.
So I hope this video has helped you understand what are the general causes of teeth grinding and one of the ways to address it and I hope it's been able to help you, if not a lot, at least the slightest of, at least a little bit, so we thank you for your time and until the next video, take care, bye now.
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