what is the reason for grinding teeth in sleep

Some people grind their teeth at night after going to sleep, because there is no food or saliva involved between the teeth, so the sound of grinding is usually particularly loud and coarse. In addition, the grinding of teeth mostly occurs at night when sleeping, so many people can not consciously control themselves. What is the cause of grinding teeth at night?

Wrong sleeping position

The phenomenon of grinding teeth at night may be related to the wrong sleeping position. People who are used to sleeping on the side, because of the pressure, the muscles of the side being pressed can easily occur abnormal contraction resulting in grinding teeth at night. In addition, people who like to sleep under the covers because of insufficient oxygen supply to the brain tissue are also prone to grinding teeth.

Intestinal parasites

The presence of intestinal parasites is the most common cause of teeth grinding in children at night. Especially if the child has roundworm disease, it is more likely to cause teeth grinding. Because roundworms can secrete metabolites and a variety of toxins to stimulate the corresponding parts of the brain to cause the chewing center to produce excitement, so that the chewing muscle to carry out continuous contraction, resulting in grinding teeth.

Digestive disorders

If you eat too much at night, resulting in sleep when the intestines accumulated a lot of food, resulting in the intestines have to work again at night, increasing the burden on the stomach and intestines will not only lead to a decline in digestive function will also lead to involuntary grinding of teeth at night when sleeping.

Mental tension

Mental tension or emotional excitement or even in a state of excessive fatigue, when sleeping at night can make the cerebral cortex dysfunction triggers grinding teeth. In addition, there are some central nervous system diseases such as hysteria, psychomotor epilepsy and so on can lead to teeth grinding.

Oral diseases

If you are suffering from oral diseases, such as chronic periodontitis, poor upper and lower bite, etc. will be due to the difficulty of teeth clenching, "premature contact point" between the upper and lower teeth. This leads to excessive tension in the chewing muscles, resulting in tooth grinding at night.

Nutritional imbalance

Nutritional imbalance can cause teeth grinding. Especially for children who are used to picky eaters and do not like vegetables, such poor eating habits will lead to nutritional imbalances in children lack of calcium, phosphorus, vitamins and trace elements, which can easily cause the facial chewing muscles to contract freely at night, resulting in teeth grinding.

Poor dental growth and development

Poor dental growth can also easily lead to grinding teeth at night. Especially if the child during the period of tooth replacement rickets, malnutrition, congenital missing individual teeth and so on, resulting in abnormal development of teeth during growth, the upper and lower teeth contact will occur when the occlusal surface inequality.

Low blood calcium

Low blood calcium may also cause teeth grinding at night. Because low blood calcium may lead to unstable cortical function, when encountering various stimuli, it is easy to lead to cortical dysfunction and continuous contraction of the chewing muscles, resulting in teeth grinding.

Overworked during the day

If you are too tired during the day, especially too much exercise, the nervous system will be over-stimulated, long time without rest, can not sleep quietly at night, there will be teeth grinding phenomenon.

The danger of grinding teeth in bed at night

If the symptoms of teeth grinding occur at night for a long time, it may bring damage, commonly in the following ways.

Wearing of teeth

Long-term grinding will cause wear and tear on the surface of the teeth, the shape of the teeth will be destroyed, and in serious cases there will be sharp edges, which may cause bites on the buccal mucosa and tongue.

Hot and cold sensitivity of teeth

If teeth grinding occurs for a long time, it may cause damage to the enamel, expose the dentin, and cause pain when eating cold or hot food.

Periodontal trauma

Long-term grinding of the teeth may cause damage to the tissues around the teeth, which may lead to loosening or even loss of teeth in severe cases.

Causes facial pain and headache

Most people who grind their teeth wake up with jaw fatigue or headaches. Pain can also occur when chewing, biting, yawning or talking.

What to do if you grind your teeth in bed at night

Use a rubber mouth guard

Tooth grinding often occurs at night, you can use a rubber brace that you wear on your teeth at night. It does not prevent or cure tooth grinding, but it can prevent tooth damage when it occurs.

Suppress brain excitement

Rest and relaxation before going to bed, do appropriate gymnastics, avoid excitatory food and smoking, improve the sleep environment, etc. can help reduce the excitement of the brain and mobilize the mental effect of self-awareness and self-control to reduce the occurrence of teeth grinding.

Eliminate tension

When the human spirit is too highly tense, the jaw muscle tension is excessive, which easily triggers the phenomenon of teeth grinding, so that most of the night sleep teeth grinding and mental psychological factors, to alleviate this phenomenon, we must find ways to eliminate tension, lift unnecessary worries, and rationalize the work.

Intestinal deworming treatment

Roundworm killing treatment to reduce intestinal parasites peristalsis to stimulate the intestinal wall, because of hygiene reasons and roundworms caused by night grinding teeth may occur in childhood, but in adolescence and adults due to roundworms caused by the chances of night grinding teeth occur almost non-existent. Therefore, deworming treatments are not effective for adolescents and adults.

Chinese herbal food therapy

Chinese wolfberry and pig pancreas soup Half a catty of fresh Chinese wolfberry (with stems first), 20 strips of yellow cauliflower (remove the stems), 2-3 dates, and 1 pig pancreas, boil soup. Chen Pi in water Eat a piece of raw orange peel or water with peel every night before bedtime for 2-3 days to cure children and adults who grind their teeth in their sleep, especially effective when early teeth grinding has just occurred. Poria Cocos Soup Add 10g of fried grain buds for indigestion and 30g of rehmannia root, 12g of poria, 1.5g of yellow lily of the valley, and 10g of nocturnal sleep disturbance. Acupuncture points such as Hegu also have some effect. Sheng Di Huang Decoction Take a decoction of 1 tael of raw Dihuang, 3 taels of zedoary, 3 taels of moxibustion licorice, 3 taels of umeboshi, 4 taels of Cornus officinalis, 3 taels of Yunzhi, 3 taels of peony bark, 4 taels of yam, 3 taels of schisandra, 5 taels of aromatic herbs, 1 tael of ling magnetite (decoction first), 2 taels of lantern grass (primer).

Maintain the correct sleeping position

Do not cover your head with a quilt when you sleep, and do not always sleep on your side, it is recommended to sleep in a supine position.

Seek medical examination

If you often grind your teeth at night, you should go to the stomatology department to check if you have caries or periodontal disease, and if you have oral disease, you should treat it immediately.