Age of child matters.many causes can be considered which can be confirmed after thorough evaluation. Causes can be any problem at school with studies,teacher being too strict,friends mocking due to any reason,attention deficit on part of parents or parents being too strict.management start with psychotherapy and eliminating the cause and facilitation if needed with medication to overcome anxiety.from dental perspective,dentition should be saved by giving night guards.as grinding can damage teeth and place stress over temporomandibular joint ,leading to dysfunction.
Oh my what a poor child! Naeem you will find an excellent overview of this problem, called "bruxism" and usually associated with some kind of life-stressor, at this web site:
It is a "web-md" website, though with all its general overview and links for specific aspects of the problem you will doubtless find it a bit useful. As I see more detail on this site, I will suggest more specific things for you to look over.
Have you checked for parasites? I know Giardia causes teeth grinding at night. People have got out of the habit of worming them selves and their children. Green and black walnut, wormwood and cloves make a good mixture. Parasites are found at the core of many physical conditions including cancer, psychiatric conditions, chronic fatigue etc. See Dr Simon Yu Accidental cure, Dr Hulder Clarke, Percy Western (Victoria, Australia).
Repetitive behaviors such as teeth grinding and jaw clenching are very common in children, especially during the preschool and early school age years. These may be associated with normal fears and anxieties (the dark, "monsters" under the bed, etc.). Also related to cortical-striatal maturation (or lack thereof), linking frontal cortices with motor systems (i.e., caudate). Likely these will pass with time, without incurring major damage.
Possible cause could be stress, pressure, nightmares,anciety.
Usually there is no need of any treatment even if the theeth are grinded. Sometimes a nightime splint could help by keeping the theeth apart and the muscles relaxed
In children; non life-threatening parasitic infections are the leading cause of 'teeth grinding' episodes in the vast majority of the cases, especially, in warmer regions and developing countries but it is not unusual to find cases even in the northeastern US and Canada. Parasites can enter the body via certain foods, water, walking barefoot, sharing space with animals, etc. but the reason it is found in many children is because of their “sweet tooth”. A high sugar diet leads to a collection of heated glucose in the intestine which feeds the parasites. In many communities all over the world it is as important to give children an annual de-worming medicine, as the ‘flu-shot’ is to westerners (traditionally this happens before the school season starts). Pyrantel Pamoate and Anthelmintic are ingredients found to effectively eradicate the parasites and are easily obtained in products like Parasitol and Reese’s Pinworm medicine, for example on shelves of drugstore chains everywhere.
Another possibility of the cause of parasitical infection, albeit a more depressing one, is when a child has been hungry for a prolonged period of time, his body enters a ketonic state which provides a favorable environment to parasites. This is why many cultures do not require young children to "fast" even when their religious beliefs dictate it for adults.
It is simply an adaptive process, stop acting at 12 to 13 when the oclsusion is complete. Whether persist, if you would multidisciplinary treatment. It NO caused by parasite. By no means. One is that children adapt to a new cusp heights io a new machine, THE MOUTH, increasingly less work.
Thank you Fabiana and David. Grinding is normal at this age. The neuromuscular system is preparing a new shape of the dental arch : curves of Spee and Wilson. This new shape is fundamental for a correct occlusion . This " shaping- flattening" of the dental arch accurs as the CNS comes to a mature state ; milk teeth happen to be softer also. At the same time swallow changes and the child starts to walk with pendular coordination , that is , when walking arm is brought forward opposite to advancement of foot. Avoid to introduce any appliance at this age: taking away space for tongue function is crazy; interruption of affferential feedback for CNS IS EVEN WORSE.
Thanks for the question (Naeem) and interesting answers that I have read from this column. I summarize that the causes children's teeth grinding and jaw clenching are partly biological/ physiological (as described by Verona and Fabio) and may be also psychological (anxiety, fears, as described by Olga).
I remember that my aunt used to scold me for grinding my teeth while I was a child. Now I know why I did that :)
Sounds like a condition called BRUXISM. In my day it was thought to be the result of too little calcium in the diet. This makes alot of sense since it's a kid who's bones and teeth are growing rapidly and thus requiring alot of calcium.
May I suggest this child be screened for undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea? Emerging evidence indicates masseteric activity after respiratory effort related arousal. How old is the child? The screening could look for adenoidal and/or tonsillar hypertrophy. Sleep bruxism may lead to torus formation (either palatal, mandibular or buccal exostoses). Most of the papers on this topic have addressed adult sleep bruxism, but I suspect a similar mechanism may apply to children. In addition, children with allergies (including allergic rhinitis) and otitis media appear to be predisposed to developing bruxism, altho' the mechanism(s) are not clear.
Have the pediatrician and/or ENT or a sleep MD evaluate for sleep disorders. And as an orthodontist ask about allergy and airway issues. Do they snore, stop breathing in their sleep (may be early sign of OSA), day time sleepless, ADHD, etc. Better be safe than sorry later.
Carra, Bruni and Huynh have reported that sleep-disordered breathing signs and symp- toms, such as mouth breathing, snoring, and day- time sleepiness, have been also related to long-face morphology, maxillary transverse deficiency, and retrognathia. Pediatric sleep bruxism subjects have been found to have a skeletal/dental Class II relationship at a frequency significantly higher than control subjects. This retrognathic profile in sleep bruxism children may be seen as a predisposing fac- tor for sleep-disordered breathing.
Sleep bruxism has been described, especially in children, in relation to behavioral problems (ie, hyperactivity, attention deficit, sleepiness, poor school performance), with a frequent comorbidity with ADHD. These ADHD-like behaviors could also be the manifestation of specific psychosocial factors or personality traits that seem to be related to bruxism in children and adolescents. How- ever, sleep bruxism in ADHD patients has also been described as an adverse effect of ADHD treatment, usually with amphetamine-like medications (eg, methylphenidate) In these cases, the term second- ary sleep bruxism is often used. Moreover, ADHD patients frequently show concomitant sleep prob- lems, such as poor sleep quality, snoring, sleep ap- nea, sleepiness, insomnia, other parasomnias, and sleep-related movement disorders. ADHD is of- ten misdiagnosed, and underlying sleep respiratory disorders, such as sleep-disordered breathing, are the main causes of the daytime behavioral problems.
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