The whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

My kids had dental checkups recently -- no cavities, hooray! Neither my 4-year-old nor my 8-year-old has ever had a cavity, a fact that amazes and thrills me. I grew up with a mouth full of fillings, and my husband's dental past is less than stellar. My son has never met a sweet he didn't like, and my daughter  flees when she sees me holding the toothbrush. They take fluoride supplements -- when we remember. Like I said, I'm amazed at the no-cavity report.

We didn't leave the dentist's office scot-free, however. Apparently, my son grinds his teeth at night and the dentist recommends a nightguard. I've never witnessed him grinding his teeth, either at night or during the day, but the evidence is there. The ridges on many of his baby teeth are smooth from grinding.

So we're going to pick up the nightguard today and I'm hoping for a smooth transition to nighttime nightguard-wearing. But part of me is anxious about having my son put something in his mouth during sleep. Will it feel weird always, or just in the beginning? Should we also be working on lowering his stress level (not that it's particularly high, but grinding is most often blamed on stress)? Am I overthinking this simple remedy to a potentially more problematic issue?

Comments

[Heather]

Funny you should mention it. I actually just started wearing a night guard due to clenching and grinding. My front teeth were loose, which is how I discovered it! Wearing the nightguard did take some getting used to. I also had to have it adjusted (filed down) a couple of times to get it comfortable. But now I'm used to it, and if I get into bed without it, I feel naked and get up to put it in. The night guard is rigid and fits over all of your teeth, so I don't think it's possible to choke on it. If he's complaining about it feeling uncomfortable, try and get the specifics -- it could be poking him in the gums and needs to be filed. Don't force him to wear it until it's properly adjusted or he might really, really hate it. But if he's complaining because it's annonying, ask him if he wants to walk around the rest of his life with no teeth, because that's the alternative. Oh, also make sure he gets the night guard for just the lower teeth; I've heard the ones for uppers are much harder to get used to.

I'm not sure if grinding is always related to stress, but if you think it is in his case you should talk to his pediatrician. Is he stressed about school? Does he get enough exercise? If you think he is genuinely stressed, then you should try and help him address it before he gets into the teen years (which makes me stressed just thinking about it). Good luck!

[Renee]

I was a grinder when I was young. Every new dentist I meet can tell immediately because my bite is so perfectly fitted together. Lucky for me, I never ground them all the way down nor did I have any complications like headaches, loose teeth, etc. Some dentists don't seem to think it's a big deal (like most of mine -- and probably because it doesn't seem to caused me any problems).

As far as the "no cavities" -- I'm with you. I'm often surprised my kids don't have any either since our brushing isn't always stellar, nor are we consistent w/fluoride supps. One thing a dentist told me when my kids were little was the importance of a tiny bit of fluoride *in the mouth* as the best thing to prevent decay. So the one thing we do is let them brush with fluoride toothpaste, and they spit out the extra, but I don't let them rinse their mouth all the way clean w/water since that would rinse most of the fluoride out right before bed. Just my 2 cents, and it seems to have worked for us (despite one kid who did not let me brush her teeth for 2 years, and *gasp* lots of nighttime breastfeeding).

[lilah]

My husband grinds his teeth, terribly. He has his whole life. His teeth are worn down in some areas and slanted in the direction that he "grinds". It is so loud that it wakes me up in the middle of the night. He has tried all of the mouth guards and ever since I have known him they always end up stuck in my hair in the morning. Ew. He has tried to cut back on caffine, he stopped having that cold beer after dinner, for awhile, nothing seemed to help. He is also one of those people who can fall asleep anywhere and get a great night sleep. He is very easy going and is rarely anxious or stressed. I hope your son has different results than my husband has had with the mouthguards.

Does anyone know if hypnosis or acupuncture would help with this?

[Leah Noreng]

When I was in college I kept having these horrible headaches and couldnt seem to get to the root of them...my doctor suggested putting me on some serious medication and that freaked me out so I started having accupuncture treatments for the headaches. During this process, I also happened to stay a weekend at my parent's 2nd home and shared a room with someone...when I woke up in the morning they told me that it sounded like I had a mouthful of marbles moving around all night! Apparently, I was grinding my teeth and never realized it, and it was giving me terrible headaches. I got a nightguard and wore it nightly for a few years, and once I was out of college I stopped grinding and didnt need the nightguard anymore.

I went through 5 years of braces, including headgear and retainers and I'd say that process was far more painful and uncomfortable than wearing the nightguard ever was.

I think he'll be fine. It's interesting to see this cropping up with kids--I just noticed my 3 year old grinding his teeth the other day. I'm not sure how to address it with him--he wasnt doing it out of anger or frustration, just while he was sitting on the floor building with Legos...

[jill]

I was just reading an article about this in the "Wild Oats" grocery magazine. It was saying that mouthguards protect your teeth from the damage grinding causes, but do nothing to stop you from grinding. It is like taking Tylenol to hide the symptoms of an injury, but doing nothing to actually treat the injury. It recommended trying acupuncture to solve the root cause of the grinding.

My husband grinds his teeth and has worn a mouthguard for several years. He is planning to try acupuncture to treat the grinding, rather than only treating the symptoms with the mouthguard.

[Marianne]

So we picked up the nightguard yesterday and my son thought it was cool. Said it felt fine, wanted to wear it home from the dentist, readily put it in at bedtime. Then about 1 am, I hear him coughing. This goes on intermittently for 10 minutes before I get up and investigate. He says the nightguard was making him gag-gy and cough, so we took it out for the rest of the night. We'll see what tonight brings... thanks so much for sharing your grinding experiences. I'm seriously thinking we have to look into trying to stop the grinding altogether.

[cosmetic dentistry los angeles]

My son always grinding his teeth when sleep until I notice such changes in his teeth, our family dentist suggest to wear a night guard to protect his teeth from grinding.

-heather-