Baby Grinding Teeth: Common Causes and Treatments To Apply
The adults are not the only individuals who experience teeth grinding, but also children and even the babies. Causes and treatments are available for your information. At daptodentists.com.au you can find more info about your concerns.
In this article, we will focus on baby grinding teeth. We will try to list down all the possible causes and treatments the parents have to know. This article aims to assist, most especially for first-time parents.
What is teeth grinding?
Teeth grinding is one of the symptoms of bruxism. Bruxism is a kind of medical condition that can happen at any time of the day. It can be during the day or when an individual is asleep. Other more symptoms that can tell if someone has bruxism which is listed below.
- jaw clenching
- a loud noise caused by grinding teeth
- grinding leads to damaged teeth
- experiencing jaw pain
- relative headache or earache
Let us now proceed to the causes of why babies may experience teeth grinding.
Causes of teeth grinding for a baby
A baby can have their first tooth as early as four months after their birth. The majority of the babies can get their first tooth after seven months. This is the start that more of these teeth will show continuously.
In this case, you may now notice if the baby is teeth grinding. The baby is grinding their teeth out of the pain they feel due to teething. Since babies cannot still tell how they feel, parents should know remedies to help their babies pass through this stage successfully.
Additionally, bruxism may also occur to babies if their teeth are not aligned right. They also call this condition “malocclusion”. Mostly, grinding happens on babies at night. However, grinding teeth while awake are also common.
This dental team suggests the following remedies that parents can apply to work out the grinding teeth of their babies.
Remedies for baby teeth grinding
For babies, it is not always the teething the makes them grind their teeth. However, it is still the most common cause that parents need to work out. Below are a few of the remedies the parents can consider.
The parents can provide the baby with a teething toy. The teething toy is of different types. Teething toy’s various types are first, the natural rubber teethers. Secondly, ice teethers. Third, are the wooden teethers, then lastly, the silicone teething necklaces. Parents can do trial and error to which of the type will work out and remove the grinding of teeth.- At home, the parents can do homemade material that the baby can chew on. They can use a cool, damp washcloth that the baby can gnaw on. The parents should just ensure that the material will not harm their babies. The coldness and firmness of this washcloth can bring them relief.
- The parents can also consider remedies to reduce the stress among infants and kids. They can use bedtime routines such as storybooks or lullabies to help them sleep quicker.
- A pacifier is also one of the options to consider in this teething chapter of the babies.
Most of the babies outgrow the grinding of their teeth by their teen years. Most of the time, grinding disappears before kids lose all of their baby teeth. However, in case the remedies above did not contribute anything to remove the baby grinding teeth, it would be best for parents to seek medical advice.
A pediatric dentist can suggest what would be the best option for the baby’s teeth grinding condition. The pediatric dentist has undergone complete training specifically for a child’s dental needs. Their approaches cover infants up to young adults.
Importance of early dental care
Why is it essential for parents to have their children’s first dental appointment happen earlier? How will it contribute to an oral health condition? For Dr Haddon at Bondi, dental care education should start early, when your baby has the first tooth.
It is important to realize that early dental care root outs the establishment and maintenance of optimal oral health among infants, children, and up to young adults. Starting earlier will help them establish a good dental care routine that they can bring until they age.
Additionally, it helps with the early detection of possible dental problems. Early detection of dental issues means the early application of treatment or remedies to cure them. In this case, severe dental problems will also be avoided.
Dental care is the window to an individual’s overall health. Age does not matter at all. The younger you practice good oral health routines, the earlier you maintain your good overall health. It would be best to secure dental health earlier than to work on it in the latter years.
You will never know how infection can affect you once it has already spread out.
Conclusion
The children’s grinding of teeth is temporary. You have to keep calm on it no matter how disturbing grinding is. However, the parents have to take full responsibility in watching over their children’s condition.
If in case the grinding does not stop and the parents end up with so many worries for their baby, the best option to do is to set an appointment with the pediatric dentist. Protecting the children’s oral health condition is best when started at the earliest possible time up to the permanent teeth.
Additionally, pediatric dentists can educate the parents as well since they will take a big part in keeping and practising good oral health routine.
