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Tue 11 Mar, 2008 01:20 am
My mother has spoken in the past about my 6 year old grinding his teeth while sleeping next to her on vacation sleep-overs. I never really paid much attention to her comments, and more or less forgot about it. However, on a recent family vacation I heard for myself how loud and disturbing it is. Although he was sleeping across the room on his own bed, DH and I clearly heard him do it several times in his sleep, each time gnashing 2 or 3 times in a row.
Do I take him to the dentist or the doctor?? He has yearly dental check-ups, and always has a positive report. My mother mentioned the old-wives tale about grinding teeth = worms. Although I took it with a grain of salt, I still wormed him (just to be safe).
He is enjoying school, has glowing reports from the teacher, and schoolwork is up to the class standard. I don't believe it is stress-related, but just don't know what to do. Any help/advice/suggestions/or experience would be most welcome. Thanks, Emma-Kate
Take him to the dentist. They have a specific, latin-derived name for that condition, so they can charge you more money for it. My dentist, many years ago, who had years worth of x-rays and photos of my teeth, came to the conclusion that i was doing that. So he made a plaster cast of my teeth, and from that, he provided a clear plastic guard, that fit over my teeth, to be worn at night. It doesn't prevent the grinding of the teeth, but it protects them. I had been skeptical of his diagnosis, but the first night i wore it, it awoke me several times from the weird screeching sound of the plastic which echoed in my head when i began grinding my teeth.
This is all serious business, i'm not stringing you along. Take him to the dentist.
Bruxism...that's it exactly. Thank you for the link to that great site! Very informative, and can't believe it is so common. I will make a dental appointment, but in the meantime I won't panic too much.
Thanks again Setanta.
Yes I agree with the Dentist. I was actually called out on this the last time I went to the dentist. Apparently they could tell I did it by looking in my mouth.
But for children, I found this article on Parents Connect about the subject:
ParentsConnect.com
Approximately 30 percent of children grind their teeth when they're sleeping, and for whatever reason, teeth grinding is more common in toddlers than in older children. It's most likely to occur when a child is in a very deep sleep or under a lot of stress. Teeth grinding (bruxism) doesn't generally do any lasting damage to a toddler's teeth (his baby teeth have to last only for a couple of years), but if he continues grinding his teeth as he gets older, your dentist may wish to fit him for a mouth guard to prevent any damage to his jaw or his permanent teeth.
emmakate
I've had the same problem all my life and it did start when I was younger and would sleep over other's and they told everyone how bad it was. As I grew older my dentist actually questioned me on it and showed how much my teeth were ground down in certain areas. I even started waking myself up with it.
The guards not only protect the teeth but, they give you resistance which can reduce the habit which also helps with jaw problems, headaches, ear aches, etc.
Pretty serious.
Once you have this problem and you use a guard - most people can't sleep well without it. Eventually they can have nights where they take it out.
I am among those that will probably have to wear one forever almost every night so - make sure you start treatment early.
@emmakate,
Greetings , this is a stress problem ,someone is school is threatening him or bullying , please have him with hes father to give him courage lessons and how to deal in such situations , with wisdom and goodness .
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