Monday, May 25, 2009

Bruxism Answers...

This blog will attempt to answer ALL of your questions regarding bruxism. Bruxism affects over a million people worldwide, so there are a lot of people that have a lot of questions on the subject. With the power and influence of the internet, more and more people are looking for answers on their computers. I'm gonna try my best to answer as many questions and provide as much information as possible. Let's start with the causes of bruxism.

Bruxism causes

Bruxism is the medical term for teeth grinding. This teeth grinding can lead to many different kinds of problems other than bruxism. Because of the wide range of problems associated with bruxism, it has many causes. They range from stress to medication to dental defect. In this blog post I will attempt to show them all.

Stress

Stress is considered to be the number one cause of bruxism. Matter of fact, stress is considered to be the number one cause of a number of ailments. Bruxism in adults is most likely attributed to this stress. We live in a got-to-have-it-now, get-it-done-yesterday kind of world, so who wouldn't be affected by stress? The good news is that with this diagnosis of stress related bruxism, the success rate of recovery is very high.

Medication

Certain medications have been known to cause bruxism. These drugs are known as SSRI's, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This particular family of drugs is used in the treatment of depression and anxiety/personality disorders. So, if your doctor has recently prescribed you medication from this particular family of drugs, and you have developed bruxism,then you now know why!

Dental Defect

Stress can be attributed to a root cause of bruxism in adults, but what does a child know about bruxism? Absolutely nothing! When it comes to childhood bruxism, a dental defect is most likely the culprit. This defect involves occlusion. Occlusion is simply where the teeth contact. Between the upper and lower jaw. If your occlusion is misaligned, then bruxism is one of the results of this misalignment.

This occlusion can also lead to several other problems, most notably problems with the TMJ, or temporomandibular joint. This joint is key to the pain associated with the grinding of the teeth. This pain has been known to resonate from the teeth to the neck all the way down the back. This problem, if not repaired can lead to a bunch of other problems, ranging from headaches to earpain to eating disorders.

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