About Teeth Grinding

Teeth grinding, medically known as bruxism, is often related to stress or anxiety. There are things you can do yourself, and treatments available, to help you stop grinding your teeth.

What Causes It

It isn't always clear what causes people to grind their teeth, but it's often linked to stress and anxiety — the most common cause — as well as sleep problems such as snoring or sleep apnoea, taking medicines for sleep problems, depression or anxiety, smoking, or drinking a lot of alcohol or caffeine.

Symptoms

Teeth grinding can happen while you're awake or asleep. Alongside grinding your teeth and clenching your jaw, other symptoms can include a painful jaw (which can lead to temporomandibular disorder, or TMD), worn-down or broken teeth (which can cause increased sensitivity, and loss of teeth or fillings), headaches, earache, and disturbed sleep.

When to Get Help

See a dentist if you grind your teeth and have tooth damage or sensitive teeth; you have pain in your jaw, face or ear; your partner has told you you're grinding your teeth in your sleep; or you're worried about your child grinding their teeth. See a GP if you need help with an underlying cause, such as stress, anxiety, smoking, drinking too much, or drug use.