Why does a four-year-old baby grind his teeth when sleeping at night?

Many parents will find some bad habits of their children when taking care of them, especially grinding their teeth while sleeping. Children grind their teeth regardless of age, and most of them start grinding their teeth after one year old. Many people think that teeth grinding is caused by parasites in the stomach, while some think that it is caused by poor growth of teeth. So what is the reason for a four-year-old baby to grind his teeth while sleeping at night? The reasons for a four-year-old baby's teeth grinding are very complicated. Let's analyze the reasons for a four-year-old baby's teeth grinding.

One is mental factors. Emotional tension is the most common cause of bruxism. When fear, anger, resistance and other emotions are suppressed and difficult to express, they are hidden in the subconscious and expressed periodically through other means such as teeth grinding. It has been observed that bruxism is a common phenomenon among psychiatric patients. When you want to escape subconscious psychological pressure, you are likely to grind your teeth during sleep. The survey and analysis results of many scholars have also proved that patients with bruxism are more pessimistic than non-bruxism patients. Of course, this does not mean that all people will grind their teeth when the above situation occurs. There are individual differences. All I can say is that when you grind your teeth, you should look for the cause in this aspect.

For example, if you are overly excited, nervous, angry, or your nerves are stimulated during the day, you will not be able to calm your mind when you sleep at night and may grind your teeth. If children play too excitedly during the day, or if people work too hard during the day and are busy and too tired before going to bed at night, although most of the cerebral cortex is in an inhibited state after falling asleep, some areas (such as the trigeminal nerve in the pons) will still be in an excited state. In this way, it will send a "signal" to command the facial chewing muscles to contract briefly and continuously. As a result, the sleeping person's lower jaw will move involuntarily up and down, left and right, forward and backward, making a "squeaking" sound of teeth grinding.

The second is that there are parasites in the intestines or other reasons. When people are sleeping soundly at night, the parasites wriggle in the intestinal cavity, causing the nerves to be stimulated in some way, causing a nerve reflex. Ascaris can secrete a variety of toxins, such as neurotoxins, anaphylatoxins, hemolytic toxins and enzymatic toxins. In addition, certain metabolic products discharged by the worms will constantly stimulate the corresponding parts of the human brain while sleeping, causing some people's chewing muscles to continue to contract at night, resulting in bruxism. But not all people with parasitic diseases grind their teeth at night. Some people have irregular diet, which leads to gastrointestinal diseases and endocrine disorders, which may cause bruxism.

The third is abnormal tooth contact and diseases of the teeth and dentition. If dental caries are not treated in time, pulpitis and apical periodontitis may occur, causing pain, abscesses, and even premature loss of deciduous teeth, which will lead to unilateral chewing habits. Long-term unilateral chewing will cause uneven bite and occlusal disorders, which will lead to persistent bruxism. As well as malocclusion, such as crowded teeth, crossbite, open bite, etc., will make the occlusion uncoordinated and cause bruxism. If there is premature occlusal contact, the patient will often try to grind down the high point of the tooth surface. If this happens frequently, bruxism will develop over time. Bruxism, due to the long contact time and great force between the upper and lower teeth, often causes excessive wear of all teeth in the mouth, which is more obvious on the front teeth, and may lead to tooth sensitivity and pulp disease, or cause occlusal trauma, resulting in loose teeth and food impaction. In addition, the type of occlusion, the position of teeth, the looseness of teeth, the mandibular movement type, tooth shape and restoration, etc., all have a certain relationship with the occurrence of bruxism.

The above explains the reasons why a four-year-old baby grinds his teeth while sleeping at night. When parents find that their baby is grinding his teeth, they should observe the physical symptoms, diagnose physical abnormalities, and then take measures to relieve teeth grinding. If teeth grinding still occurs after taking deworming medicine, they should go to the hospital for oral and dental examinations, and finally diagnose the disease and provide treatment.