Fears and stress triggers teeth grinding
Feeling anxious, stressful and worried about life: One in five suffers from teeth grinding
19/09/2012
Recent research has shown that in Germany every fifth person suffers from permanent teeth grinding. The enamel, Kiefermuskeln- and joints are sometimes severely damaged. Not infrequently, sufferers in consequence of tinnitus, blurred vision or back pain. Physicians assume that stress and mental stress play a major role in the development of teeth grinding.
In this country, one in five suffers from chronic teeth grinding. The consequences are usually damage to temporomandibular joints and teeth. Most patients grind with teeth at night or in mundane or stressful everyday situations. Every second German has lived through this habit at least once or several times in life, as reported by the Federal Dental Association (BZÄK) in Berlin. In most cases, the crunch stops after a certain time by itself. "However, with one-fifth it comes to a lasting clenching or rubbing of the upper and lower jaw teeth with problematic consequences," says BZÄK Vice President Prof. Dr. med. Dietmar Oesterreich. In the medical community, the phenomenon is also called bruxism.
Crunching of the teeth causes severe tooth discomfort and back problems
Teeth grinding is not only unpleasant for the hearing environment. Since the biting force of a person is very strong, massive teeth are released when the teeth crunch. Enamel is often severely damaged, although enamel is the most resistant substance in the human body. Dentists recognize the crunching of changes in the teeth. These have, for example, smoothly polished surfaces and chips or cracks. In bad cases, the teeth may loosen, be severely abraded and the tooth nerve is then covered only by a very thin layer. "By pressing and crunching, the masticatory muscles are also severely strained, overloaded and can cause punctual or diffuse pain," explains Dr. med. Oliver Ahlers from the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy. Patients often experience pain in the temporomandibular joints. Not infrequently it also comes to headaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain and pain in the pelvic muscles. In some cases, doctors have also been able to observe additional ear noise and vision problems.
Stress and psyche are often burdened
The causes of teeth grinding are very different. In many cases, the patients suffer from stress, so doctors also speak of a psychosomatic illness, explains the dentist Austria. Psychotherapists suspect that causally suppressed emotions, anxiety, everyday worries or bad events such as the death of a close person are. "Stress and worry leave people with teeth grinding," reports Tobias Weinmann, a behavioral therapist from Hanover. "The crunch is a kind of drain valve for conscious or unconscious feelings".
Also organic causes are possible
In addition to the psychological or emotional burden triggers and organic problems can be a cause. False teeth, improper crowns, fillings and other orthopedic reasons can lead to bruxism. However, many do not know about it because the crunching is often unconscious. Therefore, an early diagnosis is difficult. "At night, crunching often only gets to the bed neighbor," says Hans-Jürgen Korn from the German Society for Biofeedback.
Dental splint can only help symptomatically
Mostly, dentists diagnose the condition. The standard therapy is a dental splint, which the affected person usually has to carry at night. However, this therapy only aims to "stop the loss of other hard tooth substance," says Ahlers. A "Aufbissbehelfe without adjusted Zahnkontakte" is intended to help patients, when teeth grinding on an unexpected obstacle happen. This will bring the upper and lower jaws apart. A so-called occlusal splint can additionally set a jaw position. The aim is to stabilize the lower jaw and relieve the masticatory muscles.
In addition to mechanical therapy, it is important to find the trigger. But the dentist can not do that. The dentists can only relieve the acute symptoms. "But the dentist does not take the stress out of the patient," emphasizes Oesterreich. "Help can relaxation exercises such as autogenic training, yoga or Tai Chi," says Weinmann. In some cases, psychotherapy can also help treat anxiety disorders.
Be aware of crunching with biofeedback
Another form of therapy is biofeedback. In doing so, the patients become aware of the crunching and pressing. A sensor measures the muscle tension applied to the masticatory muscles. "If it is not just a matter of short sips, they will be signaled to the person concerned by a warning tone," explains Korn. This can "strengthen one's own body perception in order to better notice in which situations one reacts to stress with a tension." Korn also advocates relaxation exercises, so that the stressed learn to loosen the jaw. An exercise: The molars should not touch. The mouth is closed and the tip of the tongue remains behind the upper teeth. It is important to check in everyday life again and again, whether the described attitude of the jaw is inserted. (Sb)
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