Grinding of Teeth (Bruxism)

Parents become aware that their child is grinding their teeth from the noise while the child is sleeping or from the shortened appearance of the teeth. Causes can be stress from changes in regular habits, school or family stress or physical such as a larger than average tooth or teeth and mismatched jaw sizes. In a young child, teeth grinding due to larger than average tooth size can be treated. I reshape the larger tooth to match the rest of the dentition. Mismatched jaws can be treated at puberty with braces and emotional stress factors are beyond the scope of my practice. Most children outgrow tooth grinding around 6 to 9 years of age as the permanent dentition develop and this habit usually stops by 12 years of age when all the baby teeth are lost.