What should I do if I always grind my teeth when I sleep? Is it because of roundworms in my stomach? Doctor: Understand in one article

Have you ever had this experience? You woke up in the middle of the night and heard a "crunching" sound around you. When you listened carefully, you found that it was your roommate grinding his teeth. So the next day you told your roommate: "You were grinding your teeth while sleeping last night. You must have roundworms in your stomach!"

Does grinding teeth at night mean that there are roundworms in the stomach? Many people have this idea. When I was a child, I also heard the elders in my family say "grinding teeth at night means roundworms crawling in the stomach". Later, when I studied medicine, I found that this statement was incorrect. Our intestines are so far away from the mouth that doctors have racked their brains but have not found the relationship between them. Moreover, with the improvement of diet and hygiene conditions, roundworm disease is no longer so common, but teeth grinding happens around us all the time.

Why do people grind their teeth?

Since there is no necessary connection between teeth grinding and roundworms, why do people grind their teeth? In fact, teeth grinding has its own medical term, called bruxism, which not only occurs in the middle of the night when sleeping, but also during the day, but the manifestation during the day is not teeth grinding but unconsciously clenching the teeth.

There is no clear evidence that bruxism is caused by a specific reason, but it is generally believed that bruxism is related to the following conditions:

Mental stress: When mental stress is too great, teeth grinding is more like a release of stress, so when you are anxious, irritable, or nervous, teeth grinding tends to get worse;

External factors: smoking, drinking and coffee will increase the probability of bruxism;

Disease factors: Some diseases themselves are accompanied by symptoms of bruxism, such as Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders, etc.

Genetic factors: Yes, there is a certain family tendency to grind teeth;

Occlusal factors: Inharmonious occlusion can easily lead to excessive attention of those with sensitive nerves, thus causing bruxism;

Is there any harm to the body from teeth grinding? If you observe carefully, you will find that the upper and lower teeth are not tightly together, but there is a little gap in the middle, which can effectively avoid teeth grinding and keep our teeth in a resting state.

When bruxism occurs, the number of times the teeth are chewed increases significantly, and tooth wear also increases. Over time, our teeth will become shorter and shorter. In severe cases, it may even lead to exposed dentin, greatly increasing the chances of dental nerve inflammation and toothache.

Long-term bruxism can also lead to masseter muscle fatigue and temporomandibular joint disorder. Many people even cannot open their mouths wide, causing serious troubles in their lives.

How to reduce the harm caused by teeth grinding? Since teeth grinding has so many harms, once teeth grinding occurs, how to reduce the damage caused by teeth grinding?

Since bruxism is caused by the contact and wear of the upper and lower teeth, we can find a way to separate the upper and lower teeth. So people invented bite pads to separate the teeth that wear each other. It can protect the teeth and reduce muscle tension, and the tension of the joints will also be reduced.

Of course, if previous teeth grinding has caused the teeth to become shorter or even the dentin to be exposed, and the dental nerve to become inflamed, then the missing teeth may need to be filled.

In addition, you should try to avoid the causes of teeth grinding, such as drinking less coffee before going to bed, avoiding smoking and drinking, trying to relax, and relieve psychological stress.

So next time you find someone grinding their teeth, don’t say that they have worms in their stomach!