Teeth Grinding - Fairfax,VA

Hi,
I haven't read others I wrote vut my boy does it and his dentist says not to worry about it.
Others may say different but it hasn't caused any problems for him. Good Luck
S.

Hi M.,
They are his baby teeth, so I wouldn't worry about the teeth. I would, however, be concerned about WHY he is grinding. Does he see you react to it and do it to get attention? He might be in an emotional growth spurt and doing it unintentionally. Or there might be something going on. I'd discuss it with your pediatrician.
J.
PS - For what it's worth, my son ground his teeth until one was almost to the nerve. Since his adult teeth have come in, I don't see evidence him grinding anymore.

Oops sorry I started responding to a question but realized I was responding to the wrong one.

Hi M.,

I don't know how to get him to stop but my son used to grind his teeth a lot when he was just over a year old (he has been late to get his teeth & only had 3 teeth at the time or it probably would've happened earlier). It made such a horrible noise but his dentist said it's normal & not to make a big deal about it & he would stop eventually (which he did, although it felt like it took forever). He even chipped 2 of his teeth & I had them filed down by the dentist. If it wasn't for the pain it caused me during breastfeeding (ouch!), I wouldn't have bothered filing them, but it was reassuring to have him checked out & learn it was normal. Since it was a pretty quick procedure, she didn't even charge for it so ask you child's dentist (or find one if he doesn't have one since kids should see a dentist around their first b-day or within 6mo of getting their first tooth anyhow). Then he did it once more & the dentist filed that one as well. My son will still grind his teeth sometimes but it's usually only for a little while & he stops on his own after less than a day. Good luck with your son & hopefully he'll stop grinding soon!

--J.C.

I used to nanny for a little girl that did this. Her parents consulted a pediatric dentist who assured them it was normal and wasn't causing any harm. The explanation was that it was simply her way of "telling" her teeth how much room they had. She would do it for a week or so, then stop, and the next time she cut more teeth, it would start again (it started around 12 months).

M.,

I suggest asking a Speech Language Pathologist. They may have some exercises you can do for your son. My son is a grinder and has been for a while. Don't just ask your pediatrician (that is what I did at first), also ask an SLP. Call your insurance and find one that is covered.

Good luck!
N.

With our son we flicked the side of his cheek and said "stop grinding" he is hard of hearing and so we'd sign what he was doing and say "no" it took a while but he stopped doing it.

Interesting that the other 2 ladies said it was from teething or most likely, I hadn't really thought of that since he hasn't shown any teething complaints no red cheeks or anything.

The noise was very annoying I remember that.

Good Luck.

My son grinds his teeth every time he gets new teeth. I took him to the dentist when he was 15 months old because I felt like he chipped a tooth with all that grinding. The dentist said it's normal for them to do it when they get new teeth because they adjust to the feeling of getting a new tooth (my son also bites when he gets new teeth but is not aware that he does it). He said not to worry about it and that it will sort itself out. If he takes a pacifier that's a good way to stop it when you hear him start and at night. The dentist did mention that sometimes they grind because of stress so try to think if you have had any big changes lately in your lives or his and maybe that could be causing it but it's more likely that it's because he is teething. My son doesn't do it anymore (at least not that I can hear). You might want to mention it to the pediatrician next time you see him though and have him take a look. You can take him to the dentist at around 18 months for a first check up. Good luck

can't help you w/ this one ask his doctor. Good Luck and I hope he doesn't hurt himself

My youngest son did the exact same thing and it was so loud that people could hear him from across the room and it caused some raised eyebrows when we told them what the sound was.

We started calling him "little geiger" because he sounded like a geiger counter (radiation detection machine - I'm sure you've heard them in the movies). He was getting spots on his teeth that I was sure were wear and tear.

So anyways, here's the helpful part, what I did was simply to stick my finger in the side of his mouth and pry his jaws apart when he did this. I would then tell him "no grinding". I also always made sure to have the Orajel and Teething Tablets on hand since I believe he did this partly to try to ease his teething pain. He also did it partly because he liked the sound it made, which is why telling him no was important.

Eventually everything sunk in, or he got bored with the noises he was making and he stopped. This behavior lasted from the time he was about 9 months old until he was about 11 months old. He's now 14 months old and I can't see any signs of permanent damage to his teeth. I even had my sister check him out and she's in the dental field so she would know. She said his teeth looked fine.

Your son will stop eventually on his own, but my best advice to prevent damage is to keep correcting him. That will at least temporarily stop it. You'll just have to do it over and over again. :) Sorry I couldn't give you a miracle cure, but rest assured you are not alone and he WILL grow out of it. Best of luck!

D.

Hi M.,
Our son started grinding his teeth when he was about 2 1/2. He started after watching The Land Before Time. It began as a game when he was pretending to be Sharp Tooth! And then it became a habit, especially at night and especially if for some reason he had something on his mind. It did damage to his teeth in that it ground them down and now at six, his new teeth in the front are coming in behind his baby teeth -- the dentist said that it is a consquence of grinding his teeth at night. They are adjusting forward, but I am still worried a bit that he is going to end up with braces.

We tried talking to him, waking him up when we heard him, and we got him a mouth guard, but the one single thing that helped was the following: we took away his pillow so that his head was forced to lay back and so his mouth fell open when he was asleep. He's basically stopped grinding his teeth at this point, but we still encourage him not to use a pillow.

Hope this is helpful!
M.

I just wanted to say that if your son has recently gotten new teeth he may just be grinding them because he's curious about his ability to make that noise and the feeling of it. My son started grinding his teeth right as soon as he top two teeth broke through. The way we've handled it is to softly touch his lips with one finger every time he does it, and say no no. Usually he stopped right away (I think because he was distracted), but if he didn't I'd squeeze his cheeks together so that his top teeth didn't touch. I did this softly as well, so he never experienced discomfort, but he stopped grinding. Now, he rarely does it, and if he does I just say no no and touch his lips with my finger.

I know that it can be a magnesium problem (not enough) you can get some for baby through vitacost it's a powder and works wonders.