Teeth grinding or bruxism is a situation where a person clenches his or her teeth either in consciousness or unconsciousness. However, it’s not a habit. Several factors promote teeth grinding among people. Some of them are given below.
- Stress is considered as one of the most common reason for teeth grinding. Stress changes the sleeping cycle of a person. Upon disruption of a particular sleeping pattern, a person develops clenching their teeth unconsciously during sleep.
- Certain emotional behavior symptoms like frustration, suppressed anger and aggressive personality may also tend to cause teeth grinding.
- Bruxism may arise in children during the growth and development of the teeth and jaws. Children under the age of seven are in their growing stages. The changes occurring in the jaws and teeth makes the body response in the way of teeth grinding. The actual growing of teeth causes itchiness in the gum area and this makes the kids to grind their teeth.
- Abnormal alignment of upper and lower teeth is termed as malocclusion. Even this is considered to cause teeth grinding. It has been studied that people having abnormal teeth structure grind teeth involuntarily against each other.
- Sometimes, certain dental procedures such as filling or any other, may cause teeth grinding.
- It is also caused by worms like intestinal parasites and pinworms.
The extent of teeth grinding due to any of these reasons may vary. It even causes pain and other problems depending on various factors like the amount of stress, time of clenching, the posture, diet, sleeping habits and so on.