Question:
My dentist told me last week that I am grinding my teeth (in my sleep.
I had no idea!) And when she showed me the pattern, it is obvious.
Also, this may be contributing to trouble I am havind with a muscle in
a shoulder. I looked up a medical text a while ago and although stress
and anxiety can cause it and a couple of medications too,
"neurological conditions" can also cause this grinding.
I can't find anything in PubMed to connect MS with teeth
grinding, but I am wondering if anyone else has this and is connecting
it with MS? ( and a friend of mine has the splints and all too. with
lots of MS like symptoms, but not MS... that was her two sisters!)
I am wondering if this is just one of those hidden symptoms,
like fatigue in so called benign MS....
Answer:
I saw a documentary a few years ago about some doc in
Northern Ireland who discovered that grinding your teeth
releases some kind of peptide into the mouth which is
associated with migraines. Migraines are most definitely
neurological with the aura and other temporary deficits -
dysphasia, paraesthesia, pain etc.
Apparently, it was mostly women this affected and he
prescribed a kind of gum shield that you wear in the night
to prevent the grinding which had very good results.
My dentist says that I grind my teeth, whether that's
because I have MS or not, I'm not sure. Somehow, I doubt it.
I also grind my teeth. I don't know if it has anything to do with MS though. I
had mouth guard made from my dentist,but now it is grinded down. I just
recently bought a new one a the drug store.It was alot cheaper than the one
from the dentist.You just mold it to fit your mouth.My 2 sons grind their teeth
also.I hope this doesn't mean that they will have MS later in life.
It's called bruxism and though I doubt it to be a symptom of MS, it
most certainly can cause other physical problems that one might
attribute to MS, when in fact, it is the teeth grinding causing the
problem. See the link below.
I personally swear by the night guard...it's expensive
( around 300 US $ ) but substantially less than crowns which can run
around 600-700 $. And oh the headache and facial pain that results
when I forget to sleep w/ it :/
http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/mnissani/bruxnet/Effects.htm
If you chewed through the hard one made by your dentist, the soft one
is useless. I have gnawed thru 2 of the hard ones but was told last
month that they have a newer, more durable, reinforced one. Probably
cost more, but still costs less than a crown.
And tho I am not a doctor/expert/researcher/etc, I still don't believe
there to be connection between bruxism and MS.
It's called bruxism. If you haven't already, you might like to look it
up. It is (or can be) a neurological problem, but maybe the first thing
would be to try to eliminate any stress that might be causing it. The
dentist can give you a thing like a mouthguard to wear while sleeping,
and it does help. I used one for a while - till my little grandson
thought it would be fun to hide it from granny. Never did find it
again! LOL
