Years ago, I could swear people were coming to me with signs of freshly ground tooth enamel or broken teeth and crowns. I could literally watch the teeth being carved down over the course of hygiene visits. So I would ask them if they were aware of a habit that would make that happen. "No," they would shrug. "I don't." The only thing I and my patients could agree on was that they didn't grind their teeth during the day.
I know tooth wear is not typical. In fact, our brains do not allow our teeth to touch, even when we eat. If they do touch, it's called parafunction, or an abnormal function. So I was puzzled for a long time. It's frustrating when you know there's a reason for an occurrence, but you can't identify it.
What I started to recognize around 2005 was that patients informed me more often about obstructed breathing in their medical histories. Then I started to make a tally of which of these patients had tooth damage and which didn't. And then I compared them to the patients who were not claiming obstructed breathing disorders. I noticed that all patients I saw who had a sleep breathing disorder were manifesting tooth wear. The literature showed that this was occurring in a cause-and-effect fashion: When your airway closes, your brain instructs your jaw to move to open your airway. Your teeth can be in the way, and over time, will suffer damage in attempts to remedy obstructed airflow.
We work closely with specialists to determine if you have a breathing disorder, and we treat sleep breathing disorders with oral appliance therapy. We just so happen to treat teeth as well. Call us to schedule an appointment today.
