Bruxism
Grinding at night in Greenwich, CT: protecting what is left
Grinding happens during sleep, outside your control. What is controllable is what your teeth are up against, and how much damage accumulates over the next ten years.
How urgent is it?
Routine visit
Not urgent, but cumulative. Nearly every patient we see with worn, cracked, or repeatedly failing restorations has been grinding for years.
Opening hours
Mon–Tue 8a–7p · Wed–Thu 8a–5p · Fri 9a–2p
What this usually means
The causes we see most often
01
Sleep-related muscle activity
For most people this is a sleep behavior rather than a habit, which is why willpower alone does nothing to change it.
02
Stress
It rarely starts the grinding, but it reliably makes it worse. Patients often notice symptoms flare during the same weeks work does.
03
Airway and sleep breathing
Grinding often accompanies disturbed sleep breathing. Snoring, daytime tiredness, and grinding together are worth investigating properly.
04
Caffeine, alcohol, and some medications
All of these can increase night-time activity, and all of them are adjustable.
What to do right now
Before you get here
- 01
Cut caffeine after mid-afternoon and see whether your mornings change.
- 02
Notice daytime clenching, which many grinders also do at a desk. Teeth apart and jaw relaxed is the resting position to aim for.
- 03
If you have an old night guard, wear it and bring it with you. Its wear pattern is genuinely useful evidence for us.
- 04
Ask your partner whether you snore. It is a relevant question here, not a change of subject.
What we would do
At the appointment
We read the wear pattern on your teeth, check the muscles and joints, and look at whether any restorations are failing in the pattern that grinding produces.
A custom-fitted night guard is the mainstay of treatment: made from your own impressions, adjusted so it meets evenly, and checked at follow-up rather than simply handed over.
Where wear has already changed how your teeth meet, we plan the rebuilding in stages, and if your history suggests a sleep breathing problem, we say so and help you get that looked at.
Q & A
What patients ask us about this
Flattened biting surfaces, thin translucent front edges, tender jaw muscles in the morning, and repeatedly cracked fillings all say it clearly enough. Often a partner has mentioned the noise too.
No, and nothing reliably does. It takes on the load instead of your enamel and your restorations, which is the whole point.
A few years for most people, less for heavy grinders, and a guard that shows visible wear has been doing exactly its job. We check it at every recall visit.
Where we are
211 East Putnam Avenue, Suite 2-6, Cos Cob
Minutes from central Greenwich on East Putnam Avenue, with parking at the building.
Patients travel to us from
People often ask about these too
Describe it in your own words when you call. We will tell you whether it needs us today.