grinding

Bad Habits for Teeth

Everyday Habits can Impact Oral Health Most of us have a bad habit or two that we'd like to change. Here are some common habits that are especially hard on teeth: Biting or Chewing Non-Foods Items Maybe you've done it for years with no harm, but each time you bite a non-food object is unnecessary wear and tear, making chips and other damage more likely. If you chew on pencils [...]

Bad Habits for Teeth2020-01-07T08:00:04-08:00

Subliminal Stuff: Bruxism

Are You Subconsciously Grinding? Sensitivity to heat and cold. Loosened teeth, fractures, and debilitating headaches. All this can occur while you sleep—from grinding your teeth. Dentistry calls it bruxism. Talk about shell shock. Dentists see evidence of life in the fast lane everyday. As many as 90 percent of us grind our teeth each night, on the average of five episodes per evening. The bite force is so powerful—over 200 [...]

Subliminal Stuff: Bruxism2018-07-17T00:00:16-07:00

Your Teeth Age Too!

Special Concerns for Older Adults Along with those gray hairs and inevitable smile lines, your mouth undergoes natural changes over the years, as well. Among them: Cutting edge of teeth are worn flat by chewing or grinding. Remember to keep regularly scheduled hygiene appointments to check for cavities. Consider dental sealants to prevent decay, or a nighttime mouthguard if you experience grinding (bruxism). Jawbones supporting teeth or dentures can shrink [...]

Your Teeth Age Too!2018-06-05T15:00:18-07:00

Mystery Pain & Phantom Toothache

There's only one good thing about a visibly damaged tooth: here, clearly, is where the pain's coming from and where our response will be focused. But complaints of "tooth pain" without a clear source or origin—now, that's something else entirely. Say you've been good with your hygiene, faithful in your checkups, and you wake up one morning with a vague pain. You can't see a crack or cavity, but something's [...]

Mystery Pain & Phantom Toothache2018-04-10T08:00:34-07:00

Nighttime Grinding

And the Stress Factor Dentists and researchers aren't completely agreed about the cause of nightly tooth-grinding, or bruxism. But they are aligned on two points: at least partly, it's related to daily stress, and it's happening to more people. It may sound funny, but it's no joke: without food to absorb the impact, teeth can grind by night at ten times the force required to chew a steak, researchers estimate. [...]

Nighttime Grinding2018-03-20T08:00:43-07:00

The Perils of a Bad Bite

No, we're not talking about being attacked by a junkyard dog. That's perilous enough. The bite in question here is your own bite—the way your lower teeth and your upper teeth come together. A bad bite can be responsible for several woes you might not necessarily connect, like headaches, unsightly teeth and TMJ disorder. Let's take TMJ first. That's short for temporomandibular joint—the hinge that connects your jaw to your [...]

The Perils of a Bad Bite2017-12-12T00:00:07-08:00

Bruxism, the Unknown Habit

It's such a common habit, yet most of the time we never know we're doing it. Not cracking your knuckles or biting fingernails, but intense clenching and grinding of your teeth—known in dental terminology as bruxism. The reason this phenomenon goes unnoticed so often is that "grinders" usually perform when they're sleeping. Most research agrees that nighttime clenching is just a way of releasing tension. From what we see in [...]

Bruxism, the Unknown Habit2017-10-17T00:00:20-07:00

Bad Oral Habits Explained

Tooth-related habits, too, can be conscious (brushing and flossing) or unconscious—chewing on pencils, for example. Dental habits become bad when teeth are expected to do things they're not cut out for—opening bottles, chewing off the little plastic tags on new clothing, trimming nails, and so on. And bad dental habits can be downright dangerous. To name a few: Swiss Army Mouth Mistaking your teeth for a sort of all-purpose bottle-cap-removal-unit-plus-toolbox [...]

Bad Oral Habits Explained2017-06-06T00:00:37-07:00

Tongue-Thrusting

Train that Tongue Without therapy, the wrong oral habits, sooner or later, will cause tooth movement, breathing and speech problems You'd think swallowing is easy as falling off a log. But some of us need help retraining muscles that we've been using wrong all along. A "bad" swallow is just the luck of the draw, usually caused by unbalanced facial muscles or enlarged tonsils. When you swallow normally (and we [...]

Tongue-Thrusting2017-04-18T00:00:33-07:00

What Causes a Toothache, Besides Cavities

"My tooth hurts. It must have a cavity." Well, maybe it does. However, other conditions can cause a tooth to be sensitive to hot or cold foods, to the pressure of chewing... or to just plain ache. A few of these other toothache possibilities are: Shrinkage of the gum down below the top part of the tooth (crown) onto the tooth surface. This part of the tooth (cementum) is as [...]

What Causes a Toothache, Besides Cavities2016-03-15T00:00:28-07:00
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