What are the effects of a baby grinding his teeth while sleeping? 5 effects to pay attention to

Many babies will show symptoms of teeth grinding when they sleep, so what are the effects of babies grinding their teeth?

The impact of baby grinding teeth while sleeping

1. It will affect the baby's sleep quality

If a baby grinds his teeth while sleeping, the baby can subconsciously feel that he is grinding his teeth, and it is easy for him to sleep unsteadily and restlessly. A poor rest for the baby will affect a series of healthy growth of the baby. For example: poor spirit, loss of appetite, and decreased physical fitness.

2. It will affect the health of your baby’s teeth

The teeth of babies are still relatively fragile during and after the teething period. The direct friction between the teeth of babies will cause great damage to the enamel on the surface of the baby's fragile teeth. The teeth may become more sensitive and fragile, and then more serious symptoms such as gingivitis and gingival atrophy will occur. The dentin under its protection will also be damaged. If the baby's teeth become fragile and the tooth's bite ability weakens, it will affect the baby's eating and absorption of nutrients. From a higher level, it is also very detrimental to the baby's growth and development.

3. It will affect the position and strength of the baby's teeth

The baby's teeth grinding habit will cause the position of the baby's teeth to move or the teeth themselves to become loose. At the same time, the baby's chewing muscles will become thicker. Over time, the baby's face shape is likely to change, affecting the beauty of the baby's face.

4. It will affect the baby's mood

If babies grind their teeth for a long time, their chewing muscles will be in a working state all the time, which can easily cause fatigue. Over time, their cheeks will feel sore and swollen, and their temples will become prominent and uncomfortable due to such reactions. In this case, the baby may even feel uncomfortable and have a headache. In this way, the baby will be affected by a series of factors, and his mood and emotions will naturally become worse, which is naturally not conducive to the healthy development of the baby's body and mind.

5. The impact of teeth grinding can be big or small

Sometimes, even though the baby's teeth grinding habit has been cured, the natural conditioned reflex formed in the baby's cerebral cortex after long-term teeth grinding cannot be eliminated, so the baby may continue to grind his teeth at night. Therefore, if the baby's teeth grinding is not treated early, it will affect the baby's life.

Reasons why babies grind their teeth while sleeping

1. Intestinal parasites. Ascaris parasitizes in the baby's small intestine, not only robbing nutrients, but also irritating the intestinal wall, secreting toxins, and causing indigestion. The baby's stomach often aches, which can cause insomnia, irritability, and nighttime teeth grinding.

In addition, pinworms can also cause teeth grinding. Pinworms usually parasitize in the human large intestine. After the baby falls asleep, pinworms will quietly crawl to the anus to lay eggs, causing anal itching, making the baby sleep restlessly and causing teeth grinding.

2. Overeating at dinner or having a snack before going to bed not only affects the absorption of nutrients, but also increases the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. Because when you fall asleep, there is still a lot of undigested food in the gastrointestinal tract, and the entire digestive system has to "work overtime" and work continuously, even the chewing muscles are mobilized and involuntarily contract, causing teeth grinding.

3. Babies who lack vitamin D. Due to the disorder of calcium and phosphorus metabolism in the body, it will cause bone decalcification, muscle soreness and autonomic nervous system disorder, and often cause sweating, night terrors, irritability and nighttime teeth grinding.

4. Mental tension or excitement. A few babies do not usually grind their teeth, but if they listen to a gripping story before going to bed, or just finished watching scary and tense TV or cartoons, they will grind their teeth at night due to the overexcitement of the nervous system. Another reason is stress, such as not adapting to kindergarten life, being afraid of a certain child in the class, quarreling with parents or family members, etc., which will make the baby nervous and cause the baby to grind his teeth at night. In addition, some overactive babies will also grind their teeth at night.

5. Tooth grinding at night can also be caused by excessive force on the chewing muscles or chewing with one side of the teeth for a long time, as well as poor occlusion of the teeth, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Moreover, babies with uneven teeth often have abnormal positions of chewing muscles. When sleeping at night, the chewing muscles often contract unconsciously, causing bruxism.

6. Bad sleeping posture. If the baby's head often tilts to one side when sleeping, it will cause the masticatory muscles to become uncoordinated, causing abnormal contraction of the masticatory muscles on the side under pressure, thus causing bruxism. If the baby sleeps with his head covered at night, due to excessive accumulation of carbon dioxide and insufficient oxygen supply, it will also cause bruxism.

What to do if your baby grinds his teeth while sleeping

1. Be careful not to let children play too hard or too excited during the day, guide them to play happily and easily, especially 1 to 2 hours before going to bed, do not carry out intense activities. If the mind is too nervous and emotionally unstable, pay attention to eliminating tension.

2. The stool should be tested for parasite eggs so that deworming treatment can be carried out. Even if there are no parasite eggs in the stool test of some children, it cannot be confirmed that there are no parasites. If they have never received deworming treatment within six months, they can also be given deworming treatment. Some people still grind their teeth after deworming treatment, which may be due to incomplete deworming. Deworming can be carried out again after a few months.

3. Pay attention to adjusting the daily diet of children, eat some easily digestible and nutritious food, and don't eat too much. If there is tooth occlusion disorder, chronic periodontitis, etc., you should go to the stomatology department for examination and treatment. For stubborn bruxism in children, a special night bruxism appliance can be made for children to wear at night to prevent night bruxism and protect teeth.

Chinese medicine and diet therapy

(1) Boil half a catty of fresh wolfberry leaves (with stems first), 20 day lilies (with stems removed), 2-3 candied dates, and 1 pig pancreas into soup.

(2) Traditional Chinese medicine believes that nighttime teeth grinding is related to "stomach heat". You can use 30g of reed root, 12g of Poria cocos, and 1.5g of Coptis chinensis. For restless sleep, add 10g of Polygonum multiflorum; for indigestion, add 10g of stir-fried barley sprouts. Use the above Chinese medicines to make a decoction and take one dose daily. Acupuncture at the Hegu point and other acupoints also has a certain effect.

(3) Eating a piece of raw orange peel or soaking orange peel in water before going to bed every night for 2-3 days can cure children and adults who grind their teeth while sleeping. It is especially effective for the early stage of teeth grinding.

(4) 15g each of betel nut and dried tangerine peel, 30g of black morning glory seeds (fried, only the top powder is taken), and 15g of roasted licorice root. Grind them into fine powder and take 2-3g each time. Mix with honey water. Take on an empty stomach. You may want to give it a try.