Teeth grinding in children

Not only adults suffer from teeth grinding, children can also be affected. But as a parent you don’t have to be worried immediately. Teeth grinding can be a completely normal behavior in children up to the age of three.

This can be explained by the fact that during this time the milk teeth break through and the body must first find a proper bite. In order to optimize this, too many teeth are reduced by the grinding and a bite with evenly distributed contacts between the upper and lower jaw results. Teeth grinding in children can also be caused by stress and psychological strain. Therefore, parents should take a closer look and consider whether the child has experienced any traumatic events recently or feels under pressure. Children often hide emotional problems from their parents, so it is very important to talk to them to find out possible reasons.

Bite splint

Crunch splints are often used in the treatment of bruxism. They are made of a hard, transparent plastic that is placed on the teeth as a splint. Their main purpose is to break up the direct contact between the teeth of the upper and lower jaw.

This prevents the hard tooth substance from grinding away. The splint also helps the temporomandibular joint to adopt a neutral position, which relieves it and prevents pain. The chewing muscles also benefit from the neutral temporomandibular joint position, as they are more relaxed and therefore cause less headaches during the day.

In order to make a bite splint, an impression of the jaw must first be taken. This is then used to make a plaster model, which is used as the basis for the splint. Since this is made in a laboratory, at least two sessions at the dentist are necessary and the costs are usually covered by the health insurance.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy offers ways to possibly alleviate the symptoms of teeth grinding.Globules such as belladonna can help to reduce pain and, depending on the person, reduce nervousness, which is why you sleep more calmly at night and bruxism is at best absent. However, you should not rely solely on homeopathic remedies, as they do not always provide the desired effect and therefore the trip to the dentist often cannot be avoided. Whether or not the globules bring about an improvement should be decided individually by each person.