Grinding Your Teeth=A Red Flag for Sleep Apnea
Current research shows that grinding your teeth (also known as bruxism) is a major indicator for OSA (obstructive sleep apnea). During obstructive sleep apnea the tongue and jaw fall back into the airway during the deep stages of sleep and the airway muscles fully relax. This blockage is what causes the person to suffocate during their sleep. The brain senses that breathing is dangerously jeopardized and gets you out of the deep sleep stage to regain control of the jaw muscles and reopen the airway to keep you alive and breathing. The forward movement of the jaw and tongue to open the airway is what creates the grinding. So grinding and clenching is how the brain reopens our airway. It is our instinctual response that helps us survive. Bruxism is now considered a comorbid factor for OSA. If you clench or grind your teeth, it is now recommended that you be evaluated with a sleep screening and sleep test to rule out any episodes of sleep disordered breathing which would cause you to miss out on all the health benefits of proper deep sleep.
Signs that you may be grinding:
- Wear or flat edges on your teeth (possibly exposing deep layers of your tooth)
- Chronic sensitivity to cold, hot or sweets
- Fractured,chipped or loose teeth
- Jaw or facial pain
- Tired or tight jaw muscles
- Headaches
- Clicking jaw joint
- Abfractions (indentations along the gumline of the tooth)
- Indentations on the sides of your tongue (scalloped tongue)
- Difficulty opening your mouth