What is teeth clenching (bruxism)? How is teeth grinding (bruxism) diagnosed? What are the effects of teeth grinding (bruxism) on our lives? How is teeth clenching (bruxism) treated?
Stress, which has become a part of our lives, brings many diseases into our lives. Bruxism, which is considered a disease, develops (atrophic) as a result of excessive activity of the masseter muscle, which is only one of our chewing muscles, and sometimes the temporal muscle. It becomes visible and distinct when squeezing the corners on both sides of our jaw. As a result of this development, our normal teeth clenching force increases.
On average, our teeth clenching force is 49 kg in women and 50 kg in men, but it can reach up to 80 kg in extremely bruxist people. Considering that our oral environment is frequently in contact with many factors such as hot, cold and acid during the day, tooth enamel, which has a structure that is harder than even the hardest bone of our body and undertakes the task of both aesthetics and protecting the teeth, suffers from excessive clenching force on average per day. We can estimate how much damage it caused with 1600 chewing movements. From time to time, sudden enamel cracks in the teeth can cause sensitivity in your teeth, and sometimes even more than cracks, it can cause enamel fractures. As a result of these excessive forces, which do not always cause immediate effects on the teeth, but are repeated over a long period of time, the enamel of our teeth gradually wears away. As a result of this wear, our face height decreases and our aesthetic appearance begins to change. Sometimes, due to the decrease in this size, sometimes while clenching our teeth, the shifting movement made without realizing it (especially at night while sleeping) begins to cause damage on the TMJ (jaw joint). Pain begins in our jaw joint, clicking sounds begin to be heard and may cause locking and extreme pain when opening and closing at advanced degrees.
So, what kind of treatment protocol can be applied for Teeth Clenching (Bruxism), which is now considered a disease that affects our lives so much? ? -With the transparent plaques made, the clenching force can be buffered and dispersed and softened by the plaques without causing damage to the teeth.
-Another option is the masseter botox method. It is a treatment method suitable for those aged 18 and over. . It affects the activation of muscles, causing dystrophy (shrinkage) of an unused muscle. But this effect does not always remain this way. When our body eliminates botox, our muscles begin to become active again and gradually return to their previous state. For this reason, it is very important to follow up the masseter botox procedure, which has an average effect time of 6 months, and a re-examination by the doctor should be performed every 6 months.
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