Hi, my husband has got the habit of grinding teeth loudly at night. I get scared most often and it disturbs my sleep. He wakes up with a tooth pain and headache. I think frequent grinding of teeth has caused his teeth to become sensitive. I have heard about teeth grinding treatment from a friend of mine in Toronto. Is this treatment effective in treating my husband's problem? Is this a serious problem? What will be the treatment be like? Please give some genuine replies and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

@Ladyheader,
Teeth grinding is a common problem, so there shouldn't be anything serious unless unattended for many many years or it being a very unusual case. It can go away or at the very least be reduced by lowering stress and relieving strain around the jaw area.

- For teeth grinding and teeth clenching at night, the general go-to is to get a night guard. It doesn't have to be custom made; you can get one off amazon for around 15$

- It is believed that teeth grinding and clenching is related to stress, so another thing to look at is how to reduce stress.

- He should try and relax the mouth/jaw as much as possible. This means that he should try and keep his teeth slightly apart throughout the day. And related to this, do also make sure he isn't clenching and grinding his teeth during the day as well.

- If he's grinding his teeth frequently, he's probably experiencing pain as well at the TMJ. (The end of the jaw near the ear) Calming down inflammation with an icepack, and decreasing tension with heat will probably help for this as it can be quite painful. You can find out if he's experiencing a problem at the TMJ, by applying slight pressure there and seeing if it hurts. If it hurts, thats a sign that its irritated.

- If he is in pain, can take a motrin or another off-the-counter pain reliever for temporary relief.

I wouldn't try anything else before these methods as they should work for most cases.

Of course always best to consult a doctor/dentist. But for a problem such as teeth grinding, there really isn't much more to say than this for an initial visit.

Best of luck :)