How to Prevent Teeth Grinding for Children

Do you hear during the night that your child is grinding his/her teeth? Teeth grinding is just as unpleasant to hear especially if you are hearing it from your own children. Though, some teeth grinding is normal for children, but it doesn’t make it easy to hear. Below are some of the tips on how to prevent teeth grinding for children.

1. Remove stress factors from your child’s life. Teeth grinding at night come from stress during the day.
2. Create a quiet bedtime routine to relax your child before it is time to sleep.
3. Wait until your child is 5 before worrying about permanent teeth grinding problems. It was known that 33% of children under the age of 5 grind their teeth. Permanent teeth are much stronger and more sensitive to pain, so grinding isn’t as common.
4. Take your child to the dentist and discuss options to stop teeth grinding of your child. Sometimes some teeth are improperly aligned and it is the cause of the teeth grinding.
5. Tell your child not to chew on pens, pencils, straws, toothpicks and avoid giving him chewing gum. These habits are harmful because they allow your child’s jaw muscles to become accustomed to clenching which will make him prone to bruxism.
6. Place a warm cloth on your child’s cheek near her ear to relax her jaw muscles before he goes to bed.
7. Provide your child with water throughout the day. Teeth grinding often occur when an individual becomes dehydrated.



Warning! Don’t wake your child when she grinds her teeth. It could cause more stress because her sleep is interrupted. It could actually get worse.