Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Bruxismus
The splint protects the teeth, not the reason — tension, sleep and breathing belong in the picture.
Also known as: teeth grinding · bruxism · jaw clenching · tight jaw · night guard
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Grinding and clenching are two sides of the same thing and mostly happen unnoticed — at night in sleep or during the day in concentration, at the screen, in traffic. What gets noticed is not the movement but the bill for it: a tired, tense jaw in the morning, headache at the temples, sensitive teeth, clicking in the jaw joint, sometimes ear pressure or a tight neck. The dentist sees flattened chewing surfaces and fine cracks in the enamel. The main driver is tension — stress, worry, time pressure. Alongside this, sleep and breathing matter a great deal: grinding occurs more often with snoring and breathing pauses, and then a splint alone is not the whole answer. Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and some medications intensify it. A change of bite after a new filling or crown can be the trigger too. A splint reliably protects the teeth — but it does not switch the grinding off. That is why it is worth looking at the reason at the same time.
Grinding first damages the teeth. If pain in front of the ear, tension in the chewing muscles or a limited opening are added, it is about the jaw joint — and then more than a splint helps.
It reliably protects enamel and jaw joint; a fitted one lasts far longer than an off-the-shelf model.
The rest position is: lips closed, teeth slightly apart, tongue at the palate. A note on the screen reminds you.
A warm cloth on the chewing muscle, slow opening and closing — takes tension off before the night.
Both make sleep more restless and grinding more frequent.
Hot water bottle, cherry stone cushion or a warm bath, 20 to 30 minutes, several times a day — and move afterwards, do not stay lying down.
Breathe in for four seconds, out for six to eight, for five minutes — sitting or lying.
A splint does not stop the grinding — it protects the teeth from wear and spreads the force. That is its purpose, and it is not meant to do more. Botulinum toxin into the chewing muscle lowers the force for three to six months and is used with marked complaints. As for the grinding itself, there is no drug; alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and certain antidepressants increase it measurably, as does stress.
About eight to thirty in a hundred adults grind at night; daytime clenching is considerably more common. In chewing the force is normally about twenty to thirty kilograms; in night grinding it can be two to three times that, because the protective feedback is missing during sleep. Enamel is about two and a half millimetres thick and does not grow back. A splint lasts one to three years depending on force — its wear shows what would otherwise have hit the teeth.
At rest they normally do not touch. Tongue to the palate, teeth apart. This does not train away night grinding, but it does the daytime clenching.
The most typical sign of night-time grinding — you never hear it yourself.
The temple muscle is a chewing muscle — it speaks up after a night of work.
This combination is common and changes the approach — sleep belongs in the assessment.
A single high contact is enough — that can be corrected in minutes.
Makes sure the muscle lets go again after tensing. A lack favours cramps, twitching and inner restlessness — and the blood value reflects the store poorly.
Sets the excitability of muscle and nerve. A low value causes weakness and cramps, a high one is dangerous for the heart rhythm — here one measures rather than guesses.
Sets off the tensing in the muscle in the first place. A low value causes tingling around the mouth and in the fingers and cramping of the hands.
With heavy sweating both are lost together. Drinking only water dilutes the sodium further — with long exertion salt belongs with it.
Often recommended, but barely studied for grinding. 200–400 mg in the evening over 4 weeks is the usual attempt; the dentist’s splint protects the teeth, the supplement does not.
Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evening are linked in studies with more night-time jaw muscle activity — the last cup in the afternoon belongs in the picture.
In studies night-time grinding was linked with higher evening cortisol values. That does not explain it fully — but it explains why it increases in demanding times.
Grinding occurs mostly during the arousals of sleep — brief waking moments one does not notice. Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evening pile up exactly those moments.
Both are linked in studies with more frequent night-time grinding — alcohol about twice as much. The last hours before sleep count.
Relaxation methods in the evening lower the night-time muscle activity in studies.