Sleep Apnea

More and more dental and sleep research is showing that clenching and grinding is often a symptom of physiological problems and untreated sleep related breathing disorders including sleep apnea.

Clenching and grinding can lead to head and neck pain in people who do not have a TMJ problem.  Left untreated, clenching and grinding can cause patients to wake up in pain or have pain throughout the day. 

Patients who experience headaches first thing in the morning but find that their headache resolves or improves as the day goes on may be clenching and grinding during sleep as a result of untreated sleep apnea.  Pain in the muscles of the face first thing in the morning could have the same cause.  

These symptoms and others like them are often misdiagnosed as TMJ issues which is why we routinely screen for both TMD’s and sleep related breathing disorders including sleep apnea. The good news is that treating sleep related breathing disorders (including sleep apnea) can alleviate or eliminate TMJ symptoms in some cases.