What does it mean when a toddler grinds his teeth while sleeping at night?

Many parents of young children have discovered a problem: their children grind their teeth when they sleep at night. This makes them very worried. They don't know what causes this condition and what harmful effects their children may have if they often grind their teeth while sleeping at night. What is the reason why young children grind their teeth when they sleep at night? Why does this happen? What should we do? The editor has carefully prepared the answers for you, please check them out below.

There are many reasons why children grind their teeth

1. Intestinal parasitic diseases

The toxins produced by roundworms can stimulate the intestines, speed up intestinal peristalsis, cause indigestion, pain around the umbilicus, and disturbed sleep; if the toxins stimulate the nerves, causing nerve excitement, it can lead to teeth grinding. Pinworms also secrete toxins and cause anal itching, affecting children's sleep and causing teeth grinding sounds. Most parents believe that the culprit of teeth grinding is parasites, but in recent years, due to improved hygiene habits and conditions, teeth grinding caused by parasites has taken a back seat.

2. Excessive mental stress

Many children watch thrilling fighting scenes on TV at night or play too much before going to bed, which can also cause bruxism due to mental stress. If you are scolded by your parents for a long time because of something, it will cause depression, uneasiness and anxiety, which is also an important reason for nocturnal teeth grinding.

3. Digestive dysfunction

If children eat too much at night, a lot of food will accumulate in their intestines when they go to sleep. The gastrointestinal tract has to work overtime, and due to the heavy burden, it will cause involuntary teeth grinding while sleeping.

Nutritional imbalance: Some children have the habit of being picky about food, especially not liking to eat vegetables, resulting in nutritional imbalance, leading to deficiency of calcium, phosphorus, various vitamins and trace elements, causing involuntary contraction of the facial chewing muscles at night, and the teeth will grind back and forth.

4. Poor tooth growth and development

During the period of tooth replacement, if a child suffers from rickets, malnutrition, congenital missing teeth, etc., the teeth will be underdeveloped, and the occlusal surface will be uneven when the upper and lower teeth touch, which is also the cause of nocturnal bruxism.

Children are at a very important developmental stage. If teeth grinding is not treated in time, it may cause the following effects:

1. Long-term teeth grinding will affect sleep. Children may sometimes be aware of their own nighttime teeth grinding, which may result in a lighter sleep.

2 Teeth grinding causes excessive fatigue on the face, and can cause soreness in the mandibular joint and local muscles when eating or talking. The mandibular joint will also make a sound when opening the mouth, which will cause mental burden on children and affect their quality of life.

Grinding your teeth can also damage the teeth themselves. Because the enamel is damaged, dentin hypersensitivity occurs, and toothache occurs when exposed to cold, hot, sour, or spicy foods.

3 When grinding teeth, the chewing muscles will continuously contract. Over time, the chewing muscles will become thicker and the lower ends will become larger, which will change the child's facial shape and affect beauty.

4 Some people’s teeth grinding is not corrected in childhood and may have the habit of teeth grinding for life. Therefore, if you find that your baby has teeth grinding, you should immediately treat it symptomatically.

5. If the child has intestinal parasites, deworming is necessary as soon as possible; if the child has rickets, appropriate amounts of calcium and vitamin D preparations should be supplemented; provide the child with a comfortable and harmonious family environment, let the child watch less TV at night, and avoid excessive excitement; the diet should be a combination of meat and vegetables, and the bad habit of picky eating should be changed; dinner should be light and not excessive; ask a dentist to carefully check for malocclusion. If so, the high points of the teeth need to be ground down, and a dental pad should be prepared, which will reduce teeth grinding when worn at night.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that nighttime teeth grinding is mostly related to "stomach heat", so using 30g of reed root and 1.5g of coptis root to boil and drink it as a soup has a certain therapeutic effect. If you have trouble sleeping at night, add 10g of Polygonum multiflorum. If you have indigestion, add 10g of stir-fried barley sprouts. Take one dose daily. Acupuncture at Hegu and other acupoints also has certain effects.

Everyone already knows the reasons for teeth grinding, right? Everyone should be aware of the harm caused by teeth grinding. There are also some treatments for the symptoms of teeth grinding in young children above, but they should be used with caution. Children's teeth are very important. If a child often grinds his teeth, parents should take the child to the oral department of a regular hospital for a check-up, because some oral diseases can also cause nocturnal grinding. In addition, eating more whole grains can also prevent children from grinding their teeth while sleeping.