Why do children grind their teeth during the day? Is it dangerous?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

When raising children, parents may experience a variety of behavioral changes. One such phenomenon is grinding teeth. Since this is a rather unpleasant situation, parents are looking for an answer to the question of why children grind their teeth during the day. Is it dangerous? This article will help you answer this question.

Bruxism

Before you figure out why babies grind their teeth during the day at 6 months or at any other age, you need to find out what this phenomenon is.

So, in science and medicine, teeth grinding is called bruxism. The scientific definition is as follows: "Bruxism is an involuntary contraction of the chewing muscles, during which a characteristic creaking sound occurs."

However, this phenomenon is not considered a separate disease. This also does not apply to the norm. Often, bruxism is a concomitant symptom of neurological or psychological diseases.

According to the frequency, day and night bruxism is distinguished. Most oftenthere is a nocturnal form of this phenomenon. It does no harm to he alth. While daytime bruxism is a wake-up call. However, it is less common.

Statistics

Why do babies grind their teeth during the day at 2? Because in the first 8 years of life, approximately 50% of children are subject to this phenomenon.

However, reaching its climax, bruxism usually resolves on its own without requiring any therapeutic measures.

New sensations

Usually, when the baby's first teeth appear, parents begin to notice that their child can sometimes squeak them. The most obvious thing a parent will think is “Will this hurt the baby?”

Situations, of course, are different, and it is obvious that this event is not always a cause for concern. Very often, the reason why a one-year-old child grinds his teeth during the day is simple interest. The baby simply explores everything new, and his body too. He wonders what sound is made when teeth meet.

In such a situation, parents can be advised to be patient. As soon as the baby learns this sound far and wide, he himself will stop these manipulations.

Teething

Another reason why children under one year of age grind their teeth during the day is the eruption of new teeth. When the baby is just beginning this process, he always seeks to scratch irritated gums with any available means. Usually, one's own hands or objects that fall under them are used. Parents usually buy crumbsspecial rubber teethers.

When the first teeth are already ringing on a spoon while feeding the baby, parents usually stop buying special equipment for their teething. And that's when the kids begin to take care of themselves. They try to soothe itchy and irritated gums by grinding their teeth.

When the discomfort stops disturbing the child, he will stop pestering his parents with this unpleasant sound.

Negative emotions

A small child, due to his age, cannot yet express his emotions verbally. And so very often improvised means are used. Children may grind their teeth when expressing negative emotions or anger.

Also often children behave in this way to spite their parents or older brothers and sisters. This is also a manifestation of character, so do not scold the child for such actions. On the contrary, listen to the baby or try to eliminate misunderstandings among older and younger children. Perhaps by understanding the situation, you can eradicate the cause of this behavior.

Why do babies grind their teeth during the day at age 2 or older? This may indicate a child's psychological overstrain or stress. In such a situation, it is important not to miss the moment and take timely measures to eliminate traumatic situations.

Bad bite

To find out exactly why a small child grinds his teeth during the day, you should consult a dentist. It is a qualified specialist who will help determine the true reason for such behavior of children.

When a child's teeth begin to climb, his dentition is actively formed. And here, daytime bruxism can indicate the presence of a malocclusion. A child in such a situation creates a creaking sound not on purpose, but because of an anatomical defect.

Weaning

Why do children grind their teeth during the day? Perhaps they are now going through a period such as weaning. Often, babies have some kind of habit. More precisely, this is called the residual sucking reflex.

In this way, children try to suppress their desire to cling to their mother's breasts.

Also, daytime bruxism occurs not only with weaning, but also with the rejection of nipples, pacifiers, bottles and other breast substitutes.

Bad Habit

It is very important for parents to correctly assess the situation. It may turn out that grinding your teeth is simply a manifestation of bad taste. The child might have liked the sound and decided to just annoy others with it.

Also, when answering the question why children grind their teeth during the day, it is important to understand at what point this sound began to attract your child. Perhaps there is a perfectly logical explanation for this.

Associated symptom

Often, with a disease of the ENT organs, children develop daytime bruxism. This is a kind of concomitant symptom with overgrown adenoids, polyps or bronchitis. In this situation, children grind their teeth only during the period of illness.

When the underlying disease recedes, this phenomenon also ceases to pester the child. But inin any case, it is better to contact the pediatrician immediately after the appearance of an unpleasant sound.

Hereditary factor

In the search for an answer to the question of why children grind their teeth during the day, it is important to consider the factor of inheritance. If one of your relatives has experienced manifestations of bruxism, then you should not be surprised to hear this sound from your child.

Of course, heredity is not fully responsible for the presence of such a phenomenon. Most likely, it was provoked by some concomitant factors, and the genes simply contributed to its manifestation.

In such a situation, it is also impossible to let everything take its course. You need to see a doctor and find out what are the factors that provoked the appearance of teeth grinding and how to prevent them.

Lack of vitamins and minerals

The most common cause of bruxism is beriberi. All this appears because with a lack of vitamins there is a spasm and a general disruption in the functioning of the muscular system of the body. Therefore, it turns out grinding of teeth (due to spasm of the masticatory muscle).

To combat this, doctors recommend taking vitamin complexes with the whole family in the autumn-winter and spring period. The main components should be calcium, magnesium and B vitamins.

CNS disorders

Neurologists see the cause of bruxism in the malfunction of the central nervous system. This is explained by the fact that disturbances in the activity of the nervous system, as well as neurological inflammatory processes, affect the action of the facial and articulatory nerves. This, in turn, causes spasms of chewingmuscles and teeth grinding.

By the way, manifestations of bruxism at night may indicate the presence of a tremor, an epileptic seizure or sleep apnea. This suggests that the child has problems with the central nervous system.

Worms

If you ask our grandparents, "Why do children grind their teeth during the day?" - they will immediately say that the child has worms. However, medicine refutes the fact that helminthic invasions are the root cause of bruxism.

But they can be a trigger. This is because helminthic invasions cause intoxication of the body, and subsequently a lack of B vitamins. This already leads to neurotic disorders, which ultimately manifests itself in the form of teeth grinding.

Consequences of bruxism

Like any other action, grinding your teeth also has its consequences. In most cases they are negative. Despite the fact that the consequences directly depend on the cause that caused it, in all cases the same trend is observed. Regular pressure on the jaw affects the bite and the condition of the teeth and gums.

If the cause is not eliminated in time, the child may develop the following diseases:

• periodontal disease;
• caries;
• erasing denta and tooth enamel;
• malocclusion;
• loss of teeth (both milk and permanent);
• masticatory muscle dysfunction and facial asymmetry;
• hearing impaired.

It is important to understand that a child's dental problems will pass into adulthood, only a hundred times more serious. That's whythe task of parents is to diagnose and eliminate the dental problems of their children in time.

When to sound the alarm?

As we have already found out, teeth grinding is not always a cause for concern. To figure out when to visit a doctor, parents need to pay attention to the following indicators:

• frequency (during the day - more than 5-6 times, if less, then this is referred to as normal);
• duration (grinding less than 10-20 seconds is normal).

If parents note frequent and prolonged squeaking behind their children, then this is an alarming bell and serves as a reason for an examination.

Tips from pediatricians

Many parents prefer not to understand the situation on their own, but seek qualified help from knowledgeable people. When asking a pediatrician why children grind their teeth during the day at 1 year and 4 months, you can hear that this is an absolutely normal phenomenon. But what then to do? Pediatricians advise parents to distract the child from this activity in every possible way.

Baby teeth are quite fragile, and constant grinding does not add strength to them. These manipulations lead to the erasure of the enamel. If you think that the first dentition of a child will change anyway, and it is not necessary to follow it, then you are deeply mistaken. Destruction can reach the indigenous ones, which are still sitting deep in the gums, and they will come out already spoiled.

Also, pediatricians recommend distracting the child from these manipulations. Invite the child to play, readbook or help mom with some business. If your baby grinds his teeth outside, you can distract him with the surrounding scenery.