Question:
I recall a thread some years ago about children "grinding their teeth
together causing a noise", and at that time, my child was involved. He
stopped it for a long time, but recently I notice he is back to making that
teeth grinding noise.
I ask him to stop, and he does for a while, but then goes right back to
doing it.
I think it must be some sort of "nervous habit" just like biting
fingernails, but I don't know, and am at a loss at how to help him stop this
behavior.
I remember one of the previous posters said that their child's teeth were
actually getting "ground down" in this process.
Answer:
I use to be a Dental Nurse and I hope this may help.
People grind teeth for many reasons, stress is a major factor .
If you notice that your child is grinding during the day, he is more
than likely to be grinding at night where you can't be there to
remind him , so what my dentist I use to work for would
suggest is a splint over the lower teeth so that the teeth
are not touching and this gives the jaw a rest aswell.
But during the day the only thing you can do is to keep
reminding him.
Maddie (7, DS and autism) used to grind her teeth incessantly. We did TONS
of oral massage and brought her mouth massagers. Every time we'd see her
grinding, we'd reach in and do a quick massage on her cheeks. She doesn't
grind any more.
Our 9 yr old son has done a lot of grinding through the years. We have ask
every health professional we've seen to help us with this. The most common
answer we heard was the mouth guard at night. Our son doesn't grind in his
sleep. He grinds during the day. But if he did grind at night, I still
can't imagine getting a guard in his mouth. He's very picky about what goes
in his mouth and hates dental work. Amazingly, his teeth show no signs of
wear from grinding. And none of the doctors have heard him grind, so they
weren't too motivated to help us.
We can tolerate the grinding at home. But it's very disruptive at church
and at school.
Our son has been fully included in a regular classroom for the past 4 years
and the most difficult problem to deal with has been the grinding. It
upsets many of the other children who otherwise are very tolerant.
I found a '' wellness pharmacist" who recommended Kava. He compounded a
solution for us. It worked incredibly well for a while. We gave it in the
morning before school so its effects would peak just as school was
starting. In about 6 weeks we could see that our son had built up a
tolerance for it, and it would take a larger dosage. Since this was new
unregulated territory with the pharmacist quessing at the dosage we backed
off.
The pediatrician recommended Prozac. I cried. I never thought I would have
to give this to my child. We started at a low dosage and worked up to the
recommended amount for his weight. When we got to the full dosage we could
see a big change. He still grinds some, but not anything like he used to.
We have not been able to find a rhyme or reason to his grinding.
