 Hello everybody, Andrea here. I want to talk to you guys about today. Tooth grinding and clenching also refer to as bruxism. So I've been a dental professional for 17 years and I see this in both children and adults and a lot of people don't know where it came from, how it started and how to avoid it. And then what do you do when you do have, when you do have it, especially if it happens in children. So that's what I want to talk to you guys about today. And did you know that clenching your teeth is about 170 pounds, it could be 200 pounds of pressure. So that's a lot of pressure that's happening inside the mouth. So if you're clenching, if you wake up in the morning, you're pretty sore, like your mouth is sore, your head might hurt. It could be because you are clenching at night. So let me show you guys a couple of pictures here. So basically your teeth should be healthy. They should be a good shape, long enough, not too short. But when you're clenching and grinding the teeth together on a consistent basis, it looks like this. And that is called tooth attrition, where notice how half of the tooth is gone, because you are clenching that half of the tooth away. It might not be half the tooth, it could be less, it could be even more depending on how much clenching you are doing. Now it's very common in children. The good news is though a child tends to grow out of it. So just kids clench their teeth at night, or if they're angry, if they're throwing a tantrum, they're going to be clenching. At nighttime, they could be doing this all night. And it does make quite a noise. So if you kind of notice there's a funny noise coming from their room, it could be because they are clenching their teeth together. But kids do usually grow out of it. There's nothing we can do for kids, because it's not like we can give them a night guard. They're not going to wear one, and we just don't give night guards to kids because their mouth is changing, literally every day. We don't want to slow down that process at all. So for kids, we keep an eye on it. If it becomes painful for them where they are clenching every night, they might be starting to wear down half of the teeth. Hopefully they're going to lose those teeth, and then new teeth start to come in. Once new teeth start to come in, that is when clenching usually stops for kids. And it shouldn't continue after that. But if you're not sure, ask your dental hygienist, they can have a good look and they can definitely let you know. But in kids, I'm never concerned because usually they do grow out of it. Now, this is what a night guard looks like. So again, we don't give night guards to children, we give night guards to adults if they're clenching because you would wear this at night, either at the top or the bottom. You would not have two in the mouth. So this is just showing this is a top one. This is the night guard for the bottom depending on which one you need, either the top or the bottom. Everybody's different. It depends on how you're clenching. If you're in pain, we might typically give you one for the bottom. So there's different reasons why we do either top or bottom. But it's not as thick as most people think you would wear this at night. What it does is it helps to keep your mouth in a more further back position so you can't clench. If you still are, you're clenching on the night guard, but not as much and you're clenching on the night guard, not on your teeth to wear the teeth down. I have a lot of patients where they might need a night guard every two years because it does start to get worn down because you are clenching over time, but still not as much as if you didn't have the night guard. But then I have some patients where we have to give them a new one every six months because they're clenching through the night guard so often, but I would much prefer they clench through the night guard than if they clench through their teeth. So that makes sense. And night guard is needed. You can buy them from many different stores but they're not customized for your mouth. They're not going to fit properly. I do highly recommend going to the dentist spending the money to get a custom made night guard. You would see them for 20 minutes, they would take an impression and then send that impression off to the lab to make the night guard so that it is for your teeth. You get the night guard within two weeks or so. So I do highly suggest doing that. It can't hurt, right? It can only make things a lot better. This is a very extreme case. So can you guys see that? Notice how the top teeth and the bottom teeth are worn down. Your teeth shouldn't be completely worn like this. There's natural lumps to them. They're pointy sometimes but not worn down like that. So if your teeth look like this, you're more than likely grinding or clenching or both. This can become quite sore because remember how I said when you're clenching or grinding, that's a lot of pressure. Imagine all of that pressure on your teeth mouth every day. That can become quite sore. So it's good to get a night guard sooner rather than later. This is another example of just how different things can look. So notice how these teeth look pretty normal. You wouldn't necessarily know until you look on the inside where they're not as full as they should be. Admittedly it's kind of hard to tell from this picture but we look on the inside of the teeth and the outside. This is more obvious where notice how the teeth aren't pointy anymore. They're not their full shape and then this is how these teeth look on the inside. So we can tell they're worn down from either clenching or grinding. Same thing here. They might look normal to you but I can tell these teeth should be much longer again from clenching or grinding. This is a very extreme example. So these are the teeth at the back and the premolars. Notice how it kind of looks like there's large holes in the teeth. This tooth is normal. Okay, so this tooth back here is normal. That is what it should look like. If we see big holes like this, that's from clenching or grinding. In most cases though, we will put a white composite filling in these holes because we do want to cover them up but then we are also going to give you a nightguard. If we don't give you a nightguard, you are just going to clench away and we could put in composite fillings but then you're just going to wear them away again. It's still better to wear away at the composite fillings than it is your own tooth but we would give you a nightguard right away to really stop that from happening. So does anybody have any questions? It's so common to clench the teeth and to grind the teeth. Children will grow out of it and then once teenagers reach college, they tend to clench and grind again. They might also stop that after college has stopped because a common reason for clenching and grinding is if you are stressed, which is why a lot of people ask me, well, how is my child stressed? Why are they clenching and grinding? I think for children it's because teeth are coming in, they are losing teeth so just a lot of things are happening inside the mouth that it might even be a comfort thing for them. They're clenching like this. They're grinding but who knows and might feel good for them. Who knows? For adults it is a stress thing. Your mouth just automatically clenches. When you're doing anything stress related, your mouth clenches but if it's too much then those things can happen. So let me know you guys if any questions. The best thing to do is if you think you are clenching and or grinding or if the mouth is sore, especially around here, because these are your cheek muscles right here that tend to become quite irritated when you're clenching and grinding is ask your dental hygienist and they can help you through that. They can have a look and see if you need a night guard. So thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one.