Grinding/Clenching Teeth

Whether you have noticed yourself clenching or grinding your teeth or your dentist has warned you that you may be doing it, it's fairly common. Dentally, we get concerned about grinding or clenching because it can cause significant wear on your teeth. I've personally seen teeth with no enamel left and nerve canals exposed due to how much the teeth have worn down. This can also cause your gums to recede and has the potential to cause loose teeth, as well. All the excess stress exerted by your muscles can cause pain to your jaw joint, or TMJ, which can cause pain, clicking, and locking of the jaw, known as TMD.

Myofunctionally, clenching and grinding tells us you may not be getting enough oxygen and your body is crying out for help.

When our body is asking for more oxygen, one of the first things it does is shift the lower jaw forward. This is in an attempt to open up the airway and make it larger. We then tend to either clench our teeth if our body is happy with the airway it has made, or we grind our teeth around to find a better spot. Usually we don't even realize lack of oxygen is what is causing us to do this, we prefer to associate clenching and grinding with stress. While stress can play a role, remember that during stressful situations, our nervous system is in fight/flight mode, making us breathe shorter and shallower, giving less oxygen to our tissues. This is made worse if our tongue is in a bad position.

One way to improve the size of the airway without your body having to add extra stress to your teeth and jaw is by improving tongue posture with myo. Getting your tongue to rest up high against the roof of your mouth gets all of the soft tissue (like your soft palate and uvula, which is the hanging thing in your throat) to pull forward. This will get that soft tissue out of the way and increase your airway space. Myo cannot alter the physical size of your airway, but it can maximize usage of the airway you have.

In children who grind their teeth, it is especially vital to see a myo therapist. Children who grow up with poor tongue posture and breathing issues WILL develop into adults with a "small" airway, making them much more likely to develop severe Sleep Apnea. Getting their tongue posture right while they are growing will set them up for success because the growth of their airway will be unrestricted.

Remember, myofunctional therapy cannot restore any damage done to the teeth to TMJ, but it can help to stop those symptoms from getting worse or relapsing after you've already paid to have it fixed!