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Escaping the Nightly Grind
When Your Child's Teeth Won't Sleep By Lisa Marie Metzler
Have you ever noticed your sleeping angel nestled under her cozy blankets grinding her teeth and wonder why she is doing it? For the most part when young children grind their teeth at night, it is a normal occurrence. Although grinding could slowly damage the enamel of the teeth, baby teeth do not remain in place long enough for that to be a problem for most children.
"In children, [teeth grinding] usually isn't a concern because the habit usually stops after two peak periods," says Dr. Debra King, dentist at the Atlanta Center for Cosmetic Dentistry. "Those two periods are as the baby teeth arrive in very young children and again around age 6 as the permanent teeth begin to come in."
According to the American Dental Association, one in three young children grind their teeth. Bruxism is the medical term for the grinding of teeth or clenching of jaws, especially during sleep or when stressed. In some cases, parents may even notice a child grind his teeth during the daytime when he is teething or experiencing ear pain.
According to Dr. Jeffrey Ganeles, a periodontist practicing in Boca Raton, Fla., bruxism is a natural occurrence for most children and need not be a concern for most parents. "It is an adaptation for the brain and neuromuscular system to locate the position of the teeth as the child's teeth erupt and the jaws grow," Dr. Ganeles says. "Think of bruxism as a method of programming the brain and muscles to the teeth."
Unfortunately, by the time he was 6 1/2, the problem warranted a visit to the dentist. "Eventually he ground his teeth to the point that they were getting shorter, and one of the teeth split from left to right along the bottom edge and had to be epoxied by the dentist," Smith says.
The Smiths' dentist determined her son's bruxism was caused by his under bite and was the result of poor alignment. "The problem has gone away for now," Smith says. "He lost all his baby teeth, and we are waiting for the permanent teeth to come in to see whether or not we will still have the grinding problem later."
