Stress Every tenth grinds with its teeth

Stress symptom: One in ten Germans crunching their teeth

02/12/2011

One in ten Germans crunch their teeth, says a recent study commissioned by the Statistical Yearbook of the German Dental Association. The stress symptom of teeth grinding is not only nerve-wracking for the partner trying to sleep next to it, but also harmful to the teeth. According to surveys, women are the most affected by the suffering.

Stress as the cause of teeth crunching
The teeth crunch, rub against each other and press together continuously. In the opinion of German dentists, increasing stress has a negative effect on dental health and the jaw. About one in ten patients grind their teeth. Affected by the crunch are superficially women, as it says in the current Statistical Yearbook of the Federal Dental Association. As a cause of the symptom, dental practitioners suspect especially increasing stress in work and family, because the teeth crunch occurs today, much more often than it was the case earlier, the doctors said on Thursday. The crunching, which occurs mainly at night, can permanently damage the jaw under constant stress.

15 percent of women affected
For the evaluation, the dental chamber questioned about 1600 dentists in Germany to complaints of patients. Around 80 percent of dentists said they have seen an increase in crunching in the past. Thus, about 15 percent of women and 10 percent of men suffered from teeth grinding. The diagnosis is relatively simple: A dentist can immediately detect the abrasion of the molars, whether a patient grinds his teeth regularly at night, or only occasionally unconsciously presses his teeth and rubs. The largest group of patients, according to the analysis of the dentists 35 to 45 year olds.

Prolonged and violent crunching of the teeth is an independent complaint and is referred to in specialist medicine as "bruxism". The main cause is stress and psychosomatic background disorders. Other favorable risk factors include sleep disorders, smoking, alcohol consumption, anxiety and caffeine. The constant grinding of the teeth can wear out the teeth, wear out the periodontium and damage the temporomandibular joint. The crunching, however, also tenses other muscles that are responsible, for example, for the head posture. This can cause headaches, dizziness and tinnitus (tinnitus). In bad cases, some sufferers can not open their mouths completely. In dentistry, patients are usually prescribed bite splints. Alternatively, treatment approaches such as psychotherapy, hypnotherapy or biofeedback are used to treat the background disease. The Yearbook of the Federal Dental Association contains about 200 pages of facts on the health behavior of Germans, the health system and information on dental care. The new edition 2010/2011 was published in mid-November this year. (Sb)

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Picture: Heike