Re: anyone know causes of nighttime teeth grinding?

[Guest guest]

nt,

When my daughter was younger, she would grind her teeth at night, and we

could hear it across the house and it was severe enough to wear down the

size of her baby teeth. She stopped it before she got her adult teeth.

Nighttime teeth grinding is apparently a completely different issue from

teeth grinding in the daytime.

I wish I had better tracks on this, but it did stop for us.. I thought I

remembered that it was from taking pantothenic acid, so I went back

through my personal archives looking for those tracks. I found a post I

wrote about the time I think it stopped where some listmates had talked

about this problem going away on pantothenic acid, but I never posted a " me

too " post. Anyway, a year or two before that I could not find a backup in

the literature for this pantothenic acid connection. Way back when I found

some tracks talking about using B6 along with medication. I don't think

the B6 did it for us because we were using that a lot when she was grinding

her teeth the most.

Dr. Lonsdale describes bruxism as being part of the complex of symptoms

called dysautonomia. The pattern of things that are " off " in this

condition match very well to my daughter's earlier years when she was

grindng her teeth at night. She would have sudden crises of exhaustion and

night sweats and dilated eyes, for example. Dr. Lonsdale has seen this set

of symptoms resolve with thiamine administration, but I have no

recollection of ever focussing on that vitamin when my daughter was little

and lost these traits. What really turned her around was the g/f c/f diet

and epsom salts therapy.

Maybe, for us, it was the magnesium. Being low in magnesium will cause me

to have muscle cramps or facial tics, but they go away with the supplement.

Here are some old posts from many, many years ago (almost ten) where I went

into more detail when I was checking this out myself.. The last " post "

contains some information about hyper IgE. My daughter did not have IgE

high enough to be diagnostic, but it was quite high: similarly high to what

they see in HIV.

=============================================

Brandt, and others,

What you said, Brandt, concurs with what Grace's OT said yesterday. She

said she believed some of the tooth grinding was caused by an intense need

for proprioception in the muscles of the face and jaw. She has an " oral

program " that she gives her patients which includes a rubber tube (it

smells/tastes awful, unfortunately) that the kids can chew to get that

proprioceptive feedback. This is quieter and does not hurt the teeth. I

couldn't get Grace interested in it, but she is definitely not oral

fixated. The child never would take a pacifier--just spit it out! But a

lot of sensory defensive kids chew on their shirts or spare paper or

whatever else they can find!

I thought I'd do a medline search and see if anyone else had wondered if

lactic acid levels could relate to tooth grinding, which is referred to in

medical literature as bruxism. Nobody had looked at that connection, but I

found a few other interesting things:

One article apparently included some exercises they felt would help those

with " masticatory muscle hyperactivity " . (1) My sister, who has TMJ, has

been taught these exercises, but I haven't seen her do them.

Another article spoke of diurnal bruxism (tooth grinding during the day)

occurring as a result of antidopaminergic drug exposure. (2) Could

something in our kid's chemistries be producing such an antidopaminergic

effect? These particular test subjects did not grind their teeth at night,

and the study concluded " Our findings support DB as a focal tardive

dystonia syndrome. " (I'd guess they would vote against calling it a

" behavior " .)

Another study said " Diurnal bruxism and jaw fatigue appeared to be related

to fluctuating tinnitus, vertigo, and hyperacusis. " (3) There are many who

talk about over-acute hearing in autism.

Another article was entitled, Prevalence of nocturnal and diurnal bruxism

in patients with psoriasis. (4) I believe some listmates have talked about

such skin problems in their children, and recently wondered about the

effect of epsom salts baths.

Another study associated teeth grinding with drug addiction: " Drug addicts

show rather frequently fractures and fissures of partially distroyed teeth

as a result of bruxism. " (5) Do you suppose some of them were heroin

addicts, who would certainly have plenty of exomorphins in circulation?

Vivian, if the ones with tooth grinding were heroin addicts, this study

might lend a hint at why your child reduced his teeth grinding after going

g/f c/f. Do you think so?

Hope these studies contribute a little to the discussion. I had fun with

this search, because I ran into the usage of an old name for TMJ--Costen

Syndrome. " Costen " was my maiden name, and I understand Dr. Costen was/is

some sort of distant cousin. I like to use " Costen " for my middle name for

I was sort of the last of the Mohicans on this limb of our family

tree. There were no boys in my generation!

Costen Owens

References

1. Quinn JH (1995) Mandibular exercises to control bruxism and deviation

problems. Cranio, 13, pp30-4. (Medline #96072466)

2. Micheli F, Fernandez Pardal M, Gatto M, Asconapé J, ula R, Parera

IC (1993) Bruxism secondary to chronic antidopaminergic drug exposure.

Clin Neuropharmacol, 16, pp315-23. (Medline #93386698)

3. Rubinstein B (1993) Tinnitus and craniomandibular disorders--is there a

link? Swed Dent J Suppl, 95, pp1-46. (Medline #93276401)

4. Könönen M, Siirilä HS (1988) Prevalence of nocturnal and diurnal bruxism

in patients with psoriasis. J Prosthet Dent, 60, pp238-41. (Medline #89011561)

5. Gerlach D, Wolters HD (1977) [Dental and mouth mucosal findings in drug

addicts] Dtsch Zahnarztl Z, 32, pp400-4. (Medline #77184713)

======================

My daughter also had a few of her baby teeth stay in after her adult teeth

came in, which is the beginning part of this discussion below. She also

had very elevated IgE.

======================

Marilyn,

Oh, thanks for such a fast reply, and I am so glad to hear from a dental

hygienist, as I'm sure you've seen lots of teeth.

In complete accord with what you said, when this happened in Grace (who

does not have Retts but had other developmental problems), we were told by

her dentist not to be concerned, so I do realize this is not an extremely

rare thing to happen. But after going to an immunologist to find out why

my daughter seems to have no resistance to viral infections, he found very

elevated IgE, and a friend told me of an article she'd heard about on

elevations of IgE, which I picked up at the medical library. This dental

oddity was found in 72% of persons who had elevations in IgE that were well

over 200 times nomal, and this hyper-IgE was presumed to be caused by a

genetic defect. The article stated that there was apparently a problem

with resorption of the roots of primary teeth, which is why they didn't

come out on schedule, and some of those with high IgE were slow in having

their teeth erupt (not true of my daughter: hers erupted right on time),

but otherwise their tooth development was normal. Some of these patients

had to have the primary teeth extracted because they never wanted to come out.

The white spots were something we had pointed out to us by Grace's dentist,

and it is something also seen fairly frequently in celiac disease (a gluten

intolerance). (My daughter has a different kind of gluten intolerance, but

is not allergic to gluten grains.) Anyway, this article didn't mention the

white spots, but the pictures of the teeth in the article certainly looked

like they had overly white spots, but it was a little hard to tell,

especially since the teeth looked so worn down, I presume by the

bruxism. But maybe these spots are so " normal " that they wouldn't have

commented? My dentist said he assumed the " problem " that led to the white

spots(and he suggested fever) may have occurred around age three or

four. Does that jibe with your training, Marilyn?

This immune factor, IgE, is something that would be elevated in a child

with a lot of allergies, and allergies certainly aren't rare among

children, so I don't know if anyone in the dental field has ever done a

study to look at IgE levels in children who retained the primary teeth for

a while after getting the permanent ones in like Grace did. I could

suppose if this is happening in children with allergies, that some teeth

might be due to come out during allergy season and some might not,

accounting, perhaps for differences in this with different children who

have allergies. Even though this didn't happen all that long ago, I can't

recall the timing that precisely!

My daughter's IgE was just recently found to be about 75 times normal and

she doesn't seem to have the associated allergies to explain it (she was

also tested recently for allergies by the immunologist). Interestingly, a

lack of association of high IgE levels with allergy has been described in

children with AIDS, and it associated with their tendency towards secondary

infections, so there must be other ways to get to those elevations besides

allergy. But Grace would not be diagnosed with hyper-IgE, for that

apparently requires levels about three times higher than hers.

However, it was some of the other things mentioned in the article that made

me think of Retts, particularly, that were not applicable to Grace (except

the candidiasis and bruxism). [later note: Grace did get mild scoliosis]

Specific features of hyper IgE, besides this tooth issue:

scoliosis

bruxism

pneumonia

bone fragility

hyperextensible joints

absesses

eczema

candidiasis (yeast infections)

Does it seem like a relevant list?

Ref: Hyper IgE Syndrome with recurrent infections. NEJM 340 (9): 692-702.

Med Hypotheses. 2002 Jan;58(1):47-60. Related Articles, Links

[Click here to read]

The central role of magnesium deficiency in Tourette's syndrome:

causal relationships between magnesium deficiency, altered biochemical

pathways and symptoms relating to Tourette's syndrome and several reported

comorbid conditions.

Grimaldi BL.

BonnieGr@...

Prior studies have suggested a common etiology involved in Tourette's

syndrome and several comorbid conditions and symptomatology. Reportedly,

current medications used in Tourette's syndrome have intolerable

side-effects or are ineffective for many patients. After thoroughly

researching the literature, I hypothesize that magnesium deficiency may be

the central precipitating event and common pathway for the subsequent

biochemical effects on substance P, kynurenine, NMDA receptors, and vitamin

B6 that may result in the symptomatology of Tourette's syndrome and several

reported comorbid conditions. These comorbid conditions and symptomatology

include allergy, asthma, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,

obsessive compulsive disorder, coprolalia, copropraxia, anxiety,

depression, restless leg syndrome, migraine, self-injurious behavior,

autoimmunity, rage, bruxism, seizure, heart arrhythmia, heightened

sensitivity to sensory stimuli, and an exaggerated startle response. Common

possible environmental and genetic factors are discussed, as well as

biochemical mechanisms. Clinical studies to determine the medical efficacy

for a comprehensive magnesium treatment option for Tourette's syndrome need

to be conducted to make this relatively safe, low side-effect treatment

option available to doctors and their patients. Copyright 2002 Harcourt

Publishers Ltd.

PMID: 11863398 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

At 03:24 AM 12/16/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>This may have been mentioned befofe, but what have your experiences

>been with causes of teeth grinding at night?

>

>nt

[Guest guest]

Calcium yes as well as intestinal parasites.

pdiericxd wrote:

Hi, calcium deficiency causes teeth grinding as well...

> > This may have been mentioned befofe, but what have your experiences

> > been with causes of teeth grinding at night?

>

> I think some parents have reported minerals deficiencies (zinc) causing

> this.

>

> Lynne

Many frequently asked questions and answers can be found at

<http://forums.autism-rxguidebook.com/default.aspx>

[Guest guest]

My daughter only grinds her teeth during the day. I don't think I've

ever heard her grinding her teeth at night. We've tried extra

minerals, pantothentic acid, etc. but nothing seems to help.

I'm open to suggestions.

Lainie

>

>

> >This may have been mentioned befofe, but what have your experiences

> >been with causes of teeth grinding at night?

> >

> >nt