The Lion's Pride Volume 10 (Spring 2018) | Page 57

grinding and clenching movements of the maxillary (upper teeth) and
mandibular (lower teeth) - known as the masticatory system - against
each other from the driving forces of the mastication muscles in the face
and jaw: masseter, temporal, medial pterygoid, lateral pterygoid, and the
buccinator muscle (Kawakami, Kumazaki, Manda, Oki, & Minagi,
2014, p. 2). However, the destruction caused by bruxism doesn’t stop
there, as it has been further found to be associated both with tooth
damage from such forces and with headaches and TMJ disorders
(Swaminathan, D., & D., 2014, p. 129). Occurrences of these
parafunctional activities can happen during the day—known as daytime,
diurnal, or awake bruxism which involves “semi-voluntary ‘clenching’”
actions. It can also happen at night—known as nocturnal or sleep
bruxism; the latter is the more devastating disorder of the two different
types (Swaminathan et al., 2014, p. 129). Most daytime bruxism is
manageable due to one’s ability to notice the force being exerted on the
teeth, but sleep bruxism is not always as easy to combat.
During the night our neurological safeguards are turned off, allowing
the strong forces applied by our jaw muscles to fracture or break teeth
and pre-existing dental restorations in the mouth. Stress in a person’s life
is one of the many triggers that puts a “biological strain on an organism”
stimulating the neurological systems while we are asleep (Wieckiewicz
et al., 2014, p. 2). Stimuli that cause a person stress are called stressors,
and stressors can be enhanced by situations at work, friendships, family