Have you ever been awakened by the sound of grinding teeth? I have! It’s particularly scary when it’s coming from my 2 year old daughter. Every night, she grinds her teeth so loud and hard that it’s terrifying. I researched why people, specifically children, grind their teeth and most results showed because of stress.
Stress!?
My daughter is 2 and I do everything for her. She dictates practically everything about her daily life even down to who she decides to look at or speak to. She controls everything and 
everyone around her. I seriously doubt that she is stressed. Most articles suggested that in order to stop teeth grinding that I should make her life as stress-free as possible. Again, she’s 2.
I called her dentist’s office and they said that teeth grinding in children is very common. In fact, most children grind their teeth until they are 8 years old. Even still, her grinding seemed uncommonly loud, and I knew I couldn’t deal with 6 more years of sleepless nights. After a perfect dentist visit and tons of questions, I hesitantly sided with the nurse that she would grow out of it.
Fast forward 6 months, the grinding continued but it was worse!
I also started to notice that her bottom teeth were starting to shift and two of her top front teeth had a tiny chip. I researched possible solutions to at least limit the effect on her teeth. I found that when children wear mouth guards, it stops many of their issues. I reached out to her dentist yet again. To my dismay, mouth guards aren’t regularly prescribed to children so young because their mouth changes frequently and keeping the mouth guard in at night would be a hassle. Her dentist also mentioned that unless there is damage to the back teeth that it won’t cause any permanent damage.
So for now, I am just monitoring her grinding and making note of any changes to her teeth. I don’t think I can ever get use to the sound, but knowing that it is a common problem and not causing future damage helps a little.
