Teeth Grinding and Bruxism - How Hypnotherapy Can Provide Help for Grinding Teeth

Bruxism, or teeth grinding and jaw clenching, is a problem we treat quite regularly here in our UK hypno-psychotherapy practice

Many times our clients are referred by dentists who understand that this behaviour is linked to psychological causes. Other clients, of course, simply refer themselves and call when they have accepted that the problem just won't disappear by itself.

Very often the person suffering from bruxism - known as a 'bruxer' - finds him or herself grinding teeth while sleeping and may have been given a plastic mouth guard to wear at night in order to prevent further damage to the teeth.

Though such measures may be necessary - and sometimes essential - to immediately safeguard the teeth, they are best used as a short-term solution.

No-one really denies that having to sleep with a plastic mouth guard in place is a pretty uncomfortable way to get a good night's sleep.

A mouth guard, though, operates solely at the level of the symptom. It does nothing about the reason for those symptoms, 'the driver', or underlying reason why the individual is grinding his or her teeth in the first place.

And this is where effective hypnotherapy can be extremely useful.

In my clinical experience of treating this condition, I have often found a real degree of underlying stress and anxiety acting as a trigger for teeth grinding and jaw clenching.

Sometimes the reason for the bruxism lies in the present or the recent past -- a particularly stressful situation, relationship or job, for example.

Yet many times its cause can be traced back to some apparently unrelated experience in the person's past - often, though not always, having occurred in childhood. The experience which produced the anxiety has been recognised as being unfair, and so it quite naturally produced feelings of anger which were not properly processed and expressed at the time they were felt.

Human emotions, as we know, can be extremely powerful things. Yet one thing we can be sure of is that they are also relatively short-lived - except when they are denied and buried inside, when they are forced down and bottled up.

When this happens then they never really give us peace. Like monsters from the deep, they keep on returning and vying for our attention, making their presence known in one way or another until they can no longer be ignored or denied.

When this happens, they need to be effectively processed and treated if further and more damaging problems are to be avoided.

You see, because the anxiety or the anger was not allowed real expression - or 'processed' - at the time it was felt, this powerful energy became internalised. And the result of this, of course, is that when the person's conscious mind is 'off guard' - focused on other matters, day dreaming or asleep, for example - the subconscious mind finds a way to release some of its energy, grabbing the attention by clenching the jaw and grinding the teeth.

In a way, it's as though the subconscious is trying to 'get its teeth into' the anger or anxiety or stress and release it.

Unfortunately, what it is doing is not resolving the underlying issues that continue to generate the stress, anxiety, or anger, but to damage the individual's teeth and seriously jeopardise their oral health.

Effective hypno-psychotherapy for bruxism consists in first teaching the individual's subconscious mind an alternative and less harmful way of dealing with anxiety, stress and anger while sleeping etc.

With this accomplished, the underlying reasons for this behaviour are next uncovered and effectively neutralised.

Through the advanced techniques of transformational hypnotherapy, the subconscious mind can be helped to 're-process' the past experience so that the mind no longer needs to find release by forcing the body into jaw clenching and teeth grinding behaviours.

If you or someone you care about suffers from this worrying and damaging condition, a fully qualified and experienced transformational hypnotherapist really can help you to end teeth grinding and bruxism.

In skilled hands, transformational hypnotherapy really can provide relief from grinding teeth allowing you to sleep peacefully and without the need of an uncomfortable night guard.

Teeth grinding, or bruxism, can be a real problem for those who suffer from it. Indeed, this troublesome condition can cause jaw pain and headaches and, if left untreated, it can seriously jeopardise the teeth themselves. In this article, a leading British hypno-psychotherapist explains how properly applied hypnosis can alleviate and remedy this stressful behaviour.

A leading British hypno-psychotherapist, with clinics in London and Birmingham, UK, Peter Field is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health and Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. More of his interesting articles, info on stress , and other useful information can be found on his website: http://www.peterfieldhypnotherapy.co.uk

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