Dentist reveals 1 easy exercise you can do to stop clenching your jaw right now

If you wake up with a headache, sore jaw muscles or achy teeth, you might be grinding your teeth at night or clenching your jaw. The condition — bruxism — is surprisingly common, experts say. Without treatment, it can cause tooth damage and pain, but there are some easy strategies to manage the habit.

Your teeth should only be touching while talking or eating, experts tell TODAY.com. So if you're clenching or grinding, you may be putting extra wear on your teeth, causing oral health issues as well as headaches, jaw pain and more.

"We only get one set of teeth, and if we wear them out early, it's not like they're going to grow back," Dr. Matthew Messina, a consumer advisor spokesperson for the American Dental Association and associate professor at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry, tells TODAY.com.

"So the more we can do to protect teeth — and protect people from beating up their teeth faster than normal really (pays) dividends in the long run," he says.

Here are some signs you might be grinding or clenching your teeth at night or during the day and what you can do about it.

Signs of bruxism

"For some, bruxism is completely benign and we're not going to see any sort of signs or symptoms," Dr. Elizabeth Rae Hatfield, clinical assistant professor specializing in orofacial pain at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, tells TODAY.com.

In that case, neither the patient nor their dentist will see anything problematic and "we're not too worried about it," Hatfield says. But not everyone is so lucky.

If you do grind your teeth, you and your dental professional will likely notice some telltale signs.

For instance, they'll likely see excessive wear on the teeth, Dr. Leila Jahangiri, chair of the department of prosthodontics at the NYU College of Dentistry, tells TODAY.com.

While everyone's teeth naturally collect wear throughout their life, she explains, bruxism adds additional wear. So it's important that the dentist does "the comparison relative to that individual's age," Jahangiri says.

You might notice that you frequently wake up with sore teeth or jaw muscles, or that your teeth feel sensitive to hot or cold foods. When tooth sensitivity is related to a cavity or nerve problem, it's easy for patients to pinpoint the specific tooth, Messina says. But when the sensitivity is due to bruxism, it tends to be “kind of nebulous," he explains.

Messina also notes that patients may wake up with scalloped marks along the edge of their tongue, which are due to the teeth pressing on them during the night. You may also see a white line across the inside of your cheeks, called a linea alba, which forms as a kind of callus due to clenching or grinding, Hatfield adds.

When nighttime grinding is the issue, patients also frequently report that their partners complain about the noise, Jahangiri says.

If you're dealing with bruxism, the experts say you or your dentist might notice:

• Excess wear on the teeth

• Sensitive teeth

• Sore teeth in the morning

• Aching or tight jaw muscles, especially in the morning

• Headaches in the morning

• Scalloped indentations along the side of your tongue

• White line of thickened tissue along the inside of your cheek

• Cracked teeth or fillings

What causes bruxism?

The specific cause of teeth grinding and clenching is still a bit of a mystery, partly because so many factors can be related to bruxism, Messina says. "Bruxism is a collection of symptoms that have a collection of causes," he explains.

Not everyone who clenches or grinds at night also does so during the day. That may be because wake bruxism and sleep bruxism can have different sets of causes, Hatfield says. Still, sometimes those causes overlap.

One of the biggest misconceptions about bruxism is that stress causes or exacerbates nighttime grinding and clenching, Dr. Bernadette Jaeger, associate professor at the UCLA School of Dentistry specializing in orofacial pain, tells TODAY.com.

While stress may play a role in daytime bruxism, current research doesn't support a direct link between stress and nighttime grinding or clenching, she says.

"Daytime clenching is more significantly associated with stressful events than sleep-related bruxism," Hatfield agrees. "But we do think that anxiety can increase that (grinding and clenching) activity."

There are also links between nighttime bruxism and obstructive sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and alcohol use, she says. But it's not clear if those conditions directly cause bruxism.

During the day, however, stress or anxiety can be a major factor for teeth grinding and jaw clenching, the experts say. "If we're stressed out, one of the ways the body burns off that extra energy is by clenching and grinding the teeth," Messina explains. "It's the body's natural defense mechanism kind of gone off the rails."

It's probably not surprising, then, that patients often report clenching their teeth while driving or when bracing for exercise, like weightlifting, Hatfield says. In a 2021 survey, dentists reported seeing major increases in jaw pain, chipped teeth and clenching and grinding during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Messina says.

How to stop grinding and clenching your teeth

If you think you might be grinding or clenching your teeth, noticing the signs is the first step to managing them, Hatfield says. "Bring some awareness to it and recognize those patterns of when you're doing it," she says.

For instance, are you mindlessly clenching your jaw while doing stressful work on the computer? Or are you waking up with a sore jaw after a night of grinding your teeth?

Next, talk to your dentist, Messina says, "because it's not something that you just have to sit back and take." Your dentist will help you figure out what might be fueling your bruxism — sleep issue, stress, dental problems — and work on a strategy to manage it from there.

If your dentists suspects a sleep disorder is playing a role, they may suggest you take part in a sleep study, for instance. Or if you have additional symptoms that could indicate temporomandibular joint disorder, they may refer you to an orofacial pain specialist.

For some people, an appliance (called a night guard, splint or bite guard) might be a good option, Jahangiri says. These devices don't necessarily stop grinding or clenching, but they do prevent damage to your teeth. They typically only cover the top or bottom set of teeth, she says, and may be made out of hard or flexible material depending on what's right for your specific situation.

If a night guard is right for you, it's important to get one professionally made and customized for your mouth, the experts agree.

These devices are designed to be worn at night, but if you have daytime bruxism and can wear your bite guard during the day, go for it, Jahangiri says.

There is also increasing interest in the use of botulinum toxin injections (also called Botox) for managing teeth grinding and clenching, Hatfield says. "That can work well for people that are really heavy clenchers," she says, but it can also come with side effects and not everyone with bruxism is a good candidate. That's why it's crucial to get a correct diagnosis before turning to the injections, she says.

And if stress or anxiety is part of the problem for you, deep breathing and relaxation exercises can go a long way, Hatfield says, especially when you notice bruxism during the day.

How to stop clenching your jaw right now

If you catch yourself clenching your jaw in the daytime, Messina has a helpful biofeedback tip to stop yourself:

• Take a deep breath in through your nose.

• Hold it for a count of four.

• Let it out through your mouth slowly for a count of four.

• Put your palms on the sides of your face with your fingers spread.

• Slowly draw your fingers down the sides of your face and into your neck.

• Take another deep, cleansing breath.

"It sounds goofy, but that relaxes the jaw muscles as part of a biofeedback loop," Messina explains.

So, if you catch yourself clenching your jaw during the day, "the first step is to realize that you are clenching," he says. Try this exercise to break the loop, "and then you can go back on with with life from there," Messina says.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com