Smoking can contribute to a teeth-grinding habit. Like caffeine and alcohol, nicotine affects the body and can disturb your sleep patterns during the night, limiting the length of your cycles and preventing you from getting enough deep sleep.
Since teeth grinding usually happens during the early stages of the sleep cycle, a disrupted cycle increases the opportunities for teeth grinding to occur. It also puts additional stress on the body, and stress is a significant factor in teeth grinding. So, quitting smoking can decrease teeth grinding.
Unfortunately, this is not always true. Changing a single habit or routine is usually not enough to cure a teeth-grinding issue. What’s more, you may actually notice your teeth grinding issue for the very first time only after you quit smoking. That is because smoking can mask many oral health issues.
Smoking both creates oral health issues and creates sensations, like numbness in the tongue and within the mouth, that can cover up the existence of those issues.
The Problems Caused by Smoking
Smoking increases the plaque levels in your mouth and decreases your body’s ability to fight off infections, meaning that gum disease is a serious issue for many smokers. Smoke from cigarettes leaves your gums with too little oxygen to stay healthy against disease. By extension, smoking increases the likelihood you will lose teeth because gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss.
Smoking also increases your vulnerability to cavities and to certain cancers, including oral cancers —many of which are directly linked to tobacco and alcohol use. Additionally, smoking can discolor teeth and gums, sometimes severely, over time.
It’s common to notice many of the issues caused or exacerbated by smoking only after you have quit, and that certainly applies to teeth grinding. So, if you have noticed yourself grinding your teeth since quitting, the reality is you may have been doing it before as well.
That’s not to say it’s impossible for the habit to have arrived or changed after you quit. It’s possible that, if you’re new to quitting, your body is under a lot of stress because it’s fighting the urge to smoke, which could contribute to a subconscious oral fixation. Either way, it’s important you don’t ignore teeth grinding because it has bad effects of its own.
The Problems Caused by Teeth Grinding
Many of the problems associated with smoking are also associated with teeth grinding, in particular an increased risk for gum disease and infections.
Teeth grinding sends pressure through your teeth into your gums, which creates inflammation that makes it harder for your gums to fight infection. This leads to a greater risk of periodontal disease and gum recession and the associated tooth loss.
Grinding also wears down the enamel on your teeth, which makes them more sensitive, more easily discolored, and more vulnerable to cavities. For all these reasons it is important to protect your teeth promptly from the effects of grinding and to do what you can to reduce the habit.
Start by Getting a Night Guard
Getting a night guard is the first step toward protecting your teeth because it creates an instant barrier that cushions against pressure and limits wear and tear from friction. Some night guards are also designed to help correct jaw placement if you have jaw pain or TMJ issues. And some can prevent your teeth from touching at all.
Steps to Improve Teeth Grinding
Once you have your night guard, you don’t need to stop there. You can take additional action to try to decrease your teeth grinding habit.
Stress and anxiety often play a large role in teeth grinding. So, it is good to do all you can to reduce stress in your life. This could include assessing the inclusion of seriously stressful activities, work, or relationships in your life. But it can also look like adding de-stressing activities, like stretching, exercise, meditation, or yoga, into your daily routine.
You can also find tongue and jaw exercises meant to reduce teeth grinding. And, if your teeth grinding corresponds with the jaw, bite, or alignment issues (which can also cause sleep apnea), you could consider a DNA appliance or orthopedic treatments.
Botox in the jaw muscles has also become a popular way to decrease grinding. This works by partially paralyzing or weakening those muscles so that they do not take on tension as effectively.
It can be frustrating to find out that you continue to suffer from a teeth-grinding problem after you have gone through the stress and difficulty of quitting smoking. But, the good news is that your oral health is already improving thanks to the lack of nicotine, and there are very specific steps you can take that will help your teeth and gums improve more over time.
Visit TeethNightGuard to find a custom night guard made just for you.
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STANDARD SOFT FLEXIBLE 3MM CUSTOM TEETH GRINDING NIGHT GUARD - EXCELLENT COMFORT
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