Sleep Disorder and Clenching
By Dr. Linda Niessen -- Baylor College of Dentistry STORY: SLEEP DISORDER SCRIPT #512 SHOOT: 4/17/03 DHC Master #17 Timecode: 54:21
For more information:
Monday, June 02, 2003
Dr. Steven Bender
5068 West Plano Parkway
Plano, TX 75093
214-291-8063
Every night, millions of Americans go to sleep and grind and clench their teeth. In the past, dentists often connected the nighttime problem to daytime stress.
“I am not a very nice person. I am very cranky. It’s hard to keep going through the day. With teaching you have to be on all the time,” said patient Kelley Rockecharlie. Two years passed before Rockecharlie, a grade-school teacher, realized that she was a nighttime grinder. “It started real slow. And then it just progressively got worse to one day I couldn’t even open my mouth. My jaws were locked,” she said.
Nighttime grinding not only damages your teeth. It also can damage your sleep. It can lead to daytime drowsiness, just like snoring or sleep apnea.“One of the new theories about teeth grinding is that it’s actually part of a sleep disorder very similar to restless leg syndrome,” Dr. Steven Bender said.
Conventional sleep studies also can detect grinding or clenching. But patients may be able to diagnose the nighttime problem on their own. Ask these questions.
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Do you wake up with sore jaws or a headache?
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Do you wake up tired?
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Do you have unexplained cracked fillings or cracked teeth?
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Are your teeth getting shorter?
The best treatment remains a mouth guard worn faithfully every night. “You just pop it in and pop it out in the morning. And it works much better,” Rockecharlie said.
Dr. Linda Niessen, clinical professor in the Department of Restorative Sciences and the Office of Communications and Development at Baylor College of Dentistry, hosts Dental Health Check, the only weekly dental feature shot on location in the nation.
