Why do I grind my teeth in my sleep and how can I stop?
The best answer
I am a dental lab technician who will be a dentist in a few years. That said, I am not speaking as a dentist trying to sell my or another persons services. I speak as a person who has this same problem (with a littel more knowledge than your average patient) . There are various reasons a person grinds (bruxes) their teeth, but no one agreed upon reason among dental experts. Every person grinds their teeth while they sleep. The thing that matters is how much and how hard they grind. No matter what the cause, grinding of the teeth is bad for your teeth. There is no sure fire way to eliminate grinding. There are techniques you can use to try to lessen the amount, but they are not certain to work. A night guard is the best thing for ginding. The catch is that in order for it to help, it has to be made correctly. Wearing one should not hurt. It should be snug, not tight. If you have to use a lot of force to put it on or take it off, adjustments have to be made to it. If it rocks on your teeth, it either has something inside preventing it from sitting on your teeth correctly or it is warped. The area where your bottom teeth contact the night guard should NOT be flat. If it is flat only a couple teeth may be touching it and the problems could actually worsen. It should be made where most of your teeth should touch it and the should stay that way when you move your jaw around. The bottom of the night guard will look funny, but when you wear it and move the teeth around, you will notice how nicely it feels. I have seen and personally experienced the downfalls of allowing yourself to continue grinding without treatment. You can go online and read many articles about how dentists charge extreme amounts of money for a night guard. DO NOT use a dentist if they charge you a absurd amount. A good night guard can be made while costing under $500. To most people, that is a lot of money. If you look at the outcome of letting your teeth to continually grind on each other, you will pay a lot more money in the future because of the problems resulting from it. You will experience more pain in the jaw, worn down teeth (ugly looking) with nerve exposure that can be painfull when eating or drinking, abcessed teeth. These can lead to needing root canals and/or crowns. These WILL cost MUCH MORE than $500. If you go and get a night guard made by a dentist, do not accept it unless it fits well. If you have the time, stay at the dentist office for 30 to 60 minutes while wearing the guard. If it is going to hurt, you should begin to feel it within that amount of time in most cases. Do not hesitate to refuse to pay for the night guard if it doesn't fit and feel right. You are paying good money for a product that is supposed to help, not hurt you. I hope this helps.
More answers
You may grind you teeth because you are anxious about something, or simply because you are a grinder. My dentist told me that when I grind my teeth I not only cause damage to my teeth, but I also do not sleep as well. He said stress in my daily life may increase the amout that I grind my teeth. To stop grinding my teeth he suggested a mouth gard for my teeth. He said that only one specially made for my teeth would be benificial. They are expensive (I had asked him about wearing the ones made for sports ie football, but he said that would not work). I am lazy so I still grind my teeth, but good luck to you:)
curious george nailed it. It is either from stress or possibly from the disorder called attention deficit disorder. You just need to get a night guard either from your dentist or the dental section of Wal-Mart.