• Go for a regular dental check up. It is better to fight the disease when it is mild. This is especially important for children because they find it difficult to express their pain.
• Most dentists will provide you with a mouth guard to use while you sleep. These mouth guards are custom made and help to protect your teeth from getting damaged. This however just minimizes the ill effects of bruxism.
• A better plan of attack to stop grinding teeth may be to start working on your stress levels and find a solution to reduce tensions.
• Work on reducing your stress right before going to bed by doing jaw exercises
• Hypnosis is a yet another treatment that has shown a reasonably high success rate in bruxism.

Here are some of the things that your dentist may want to know to diagnose whether you have the problem of teeth grinding or not. They are:

• Your dentist may ask about the current stresses in your life, general dental health and your daily medications
• He or she may also want to know whether you routinely drink beverages containing alcohol or caffeine. This is important because both of these chemicals increase the tendency to grind your teeth.
• If you share your bedroom with someone then your dentist may also want to ask that person about your sleep habits. This is especially to find out about any unusual grinding sounds heard during the night.

Your dentist will examine your mouth and jaw. During this examination, your dentist will check for:

1. Tenderness in your jaw muscles,
2. Any obvious dental abnormalities
3. Broken teeth
4. Missing teeth
5. Poor tooth alignment

If your child grinds or clenches his or her teeth then you must discuss the problem with your family dentist. Although most of the children eventually outgrow bruxism still short-term tooth grinding can cause damage to your child’s permanent teeth. A proper diagnosis can not only help you stop teeth grinding but will also result in a stress-free sleep and a healthy dental life.

• You can help the kids control bruxism by relaxing before going to bed. Make them take a warm bath or shower before going to bed, listen to soothing music for sometime or reading a nice book.
• Stress is not just limited to adults. Even kids may suffer from stress related problems. Try to find out what is upsetting your child and look for a way to help him or her out. This is especially the case with children who stay away from parents and feel insecure.
• If your kid is too sentimental then you may need to consult a doctor.
• Sometimes the basic stress relievers aren’t enough to stop bruxism. If your kid has trouble sleeping or is acting in an unusual fashion then consult your child’s dentist or doctor for a psychological assessment. This can help knowing the proper treatment to be given to the child.

• Damage to teeth – Grinding of teeth can cause the enamel of your teeth to wear out and make it more exposed. It can also cause your teeth to crack and other damages that will need to be taken care of. This can be very painful and the treatment will be expensive too. Prevention is away better than cure. Therefore it is very essential to find out methods of how to stop grinding teeth and prevent it before the complications start.
• Complications with children – Grinding teeth can change the eating habits in children. They might not want to eat due to pain and not get the nutrients required.
• QTMJ disorders - Grinding of teeth can have greatly effect the TMJ and this can result in complications to the joints.
• Headache is a serious complication caused due to grinding of teeth at night. Excessive teeth grinding can also cause many other problems related to your health such as loss of sleep, depression, and anxiety.

It is therefore very essential to stop grinding teeth as soon as possible to avoid all these complications as well as your dentist’s bill!

• Lack of calcium and pantothenic acid - The calcium deficiency is most common in children and can be cued oral intake but the missing pantothenic acid might require more detailed medical intervention.
• Worms - Pinworms may cause teeth grinding in people staying in countries which have poor water facilities.
• Tooth problems and decay – The overall weakness of the teeth or a new filling which has not been done correctly might also result in tooth problems and decay.
• Psychological problems – There are some reasons that may lead to teeth grinding has more to do with the psychological development of a person rather than a medical cause. This can be caused due to suppressed anger and other psychological problems. Teeth grinding may also be caused due to a central nerve disorder. In order to stop grinding teeth quickly under such situations, you need to practice self - control.

Long term teeth grinding can result in loosening of the jaw and teeth. It can also result in mental unrest of the person and those near him or her. Therefore, it is very essential to seek medical help to stop grinding teeth.

Mouth guards can be very essential for those who have serious teeth grinding problems. This is mainly because the jaw muscles are very strong and the enamel of your teeth cannot withstand the grinding and pressure on it. Yet on the other hand, a mouth guard is just a temporary solution that is designed to cover up the problem.

The crux of the issue is that a mouth guard can help you combat the ill effects of teeth grinding temporarily but it is not a permanent solution. You won’t like to wear a mouth guard for the rest of your life. The best way out is to deal will the situation and cure the problem yourself. This will not only save you from harassment but also from the huge dentist bills.

Just be determined that you have to stop teeth grinding consciously as well as while sleeping. Grinding teeth at night is usually a symptom of stress and you can easily tackle with it if you work upon de-stressing yourself before going to bed. Work on the problem and you will find that you can actually cure it yourself rather than cover it up with a mouth guard!

Some of the often asked questions are:

1) Are mouth guards of any help in solving the problem?

Mouth guards are indeed helpful in solving the problem of teeth grinding because they help in preventing the damage of the teeth by acting as a safeguard and whenever you do the grinding consciously or unconsciously the pressure is lessened by the mouth guard

2) Are hard foods harmful if I have teeth grinding problems?

Hard foods like meat bones, nuts, popcorns and chewing gums should better be avoided when you are suffering from the problem of teeth grinding. This is because chewing these foods gives pressure to your jaws and if you have painful jaws then it will add to your discomfort.

3) What are the relaxation methods that I can use to stop teeth grinding?

Having a bath before sleep helps those people who have the problem of grinding teeth at night. Other relaxation methods that can be used include doing some exercises like going for a stroll, listening to good relaxing music or reading a book to keep your mind calm and attention diverted from teeth grinding.

The answers to these questions help the people who are suffering from the problem of grinding teeth to combat the problem.

a) Medicines:

In general there are very few medications that might help you in stopping grinding teeth yet the doctors might suggest some muscle relaxants to you which you need to take before sleeping at night. Sometimes teeth grinding might be an after effect of having anti-depressant medicines. If this is the case then the doctor might change the medicine or prescribe some other medicine to you for counteracting your problem.

b) Behavioral therapy:

It is another way of stop grinding teeth. This therapy leads you to change your behavior of teeth grinding by knowing how to rest your mouth, jaw and tongue. The method that you should use is placing your tongue upward, lips closed with teeth apart.

c) Dental guards:

It is better to use mouth guard or a dental appliance like splint to prevent causing damages to your teeth. You can either have a mouth guard custom made by your dentist or can approach any medical store for having over the counter mouth pieces or mouth guards.

d) Stress management therapy:

It is often seen that stress and anxiety play major roles in the problem of teeth grinding. Treating stress and anxiety can definitely help in solving the teeth grinding problem also. The treatments include doing exercises and meditations for staying calm.

All these treatments help both children and the adults alike to combat the problems of teeth grinding.

a) Whenever you feel like grinding your teeth try to divert your attention somewhere else. Music is a good therapy to this problem. Listen to relaxing music and you would find that the problem of teeth grinding is no longer causing any problem.

b) Avoid having chewing gums because it is seen that chewing gums is a similar type of action like grinding teeth and so as long as you suffer from the problem it is better to avoid chewing gums.

c) If you can feel that your problem of teeth grinding is related to stress, you need to understand the main cause of the stress and try to remove it. Using hydrotherapy and doing meditations help a lot in relaxing your mind and removing the stress which in turn solves the problem of teeth grinding.

d) Another way to help you in stopping teeth grinding is using a mouth guard. For this you might sought the help of a physician and get a customized mouth guard or otherwise you can buy a mouth guard from any medical store.

Any of these methods or a combination of all these methods will definitely help you to stop teeth grinding and relieve you of the pain.

a) Visiting a dentist: Many of us often find it better to visit a dentist for solving this problem. The dentist helps us providing us some solutions. These solutions are:
i) Wearing mouth guards: These help the sufferers by protecting the teeth from further damages
ii) Suggest a medicine: Common medicines that are suggested by the dentist are analgesics so that the pain is relieved.

b) Using stress relief methods: Those of you who are not willing to visit a dentist need to use the methods which would help them relax their mind and in the long run stop grinding teeth permanently. Meet a psychiatrist and learn the methods of staying calm by doing meditations or yoga or by using any other techniques.

c) Other remedies: Taking a bath before sleeping helps if you are teeth grinder while sleeping as it calms both mind and body. Another method that can help you is whenever you feel like grinding you should remind yourself not to do it.

Choose any of these methods if you want to get rid of teeth grinding problem.