teeth grinding

[Guest guest]

Teeth grinding is a common topic here. It's hard to desensitize yourself to the sound of it. hard to know what the cause of it might be. Below is an abstract I ran across this morning while doing some other writing on personality. I think we can agree that most of our kids experience anxiety for one reason or another. Often because of not being able to communicate, eh?  The article points out that teeth grinding (also known as bruxism) is related to anxiety. 

We had made that connection with Andy - who mostly grinds his teeth when ill these days - but that's anxiety producing!  When he is grinding, I know to think about what's going on and tease out what might be the cause of his anxiety.

Here's the abstrract:

J Res Pers. 2010 Jun;44(3):402-405.

Teeth Grinding: Is Emotional Stability related to Bruxism?

Sutin AR, Terracciano A, Ferrucci L, Costa PT Jr.

Source

National Institute on Aging, NIH, DHHS.

Abstract

This study examines the association between personality traits and bruxism, the repetitive grinding or clenching of teeth. Community-dwelling participants (N = 470) had a comprehensive oral examination by a dentist and completed a dental history and personality questionnaires. Consistent with the literature on state anxiety and depression as antecedents of bruxism, Neuroticism-related traits were associated with self-reported teeth grinding. These traits were also associated with other oral complaints often associated with anxiety (jaw clicks, difficulty chewing food, and dry mouth), but not with more general oral health complaints (unhealthy gums, bleeding gums, and canker sores) or with dentist-assessed occlusal wear or tongue indentations. This study provides evidence for the association between Neuroticism and bruxism and other stress-related oral health symptoms.

Joan

Joan Guthrie Medlen, MEd, RD

DownSyndromeNutrition.com

twitter: @jmedlen