Good day,
Botox has more than 100 usages in medical and dental settings. We use it in our dental practice to weaken the muscles of grinding and clenching.
If you are clenching or grinding during the day, you can stop it by being aware of the teeth on the lower jaw hitting the teeth on the upper jaw. Just open your bite and keep the lips together. That is the natural way of being. The reason mouth should be closed is to keep it moist as open mouth warrants dry mouth. And we need all our saliva to keep the environment of the mouth healthy for our teeth, gum and bone.
When we clench our teeth together, we put pressure on our jaw joint (TMJ) and this pressure causes damage to the cartilage which is preventing bone to bone contact.
When our muscles of grinding and clenching get weak by administration of Botox, then we do not get muscle ache, headache, shoulder ache or neckache caused by teeth to teeth contact.
We need to get Botox treatment few times a year and the good news is that, the effect of Botox is cumulative. Meaning after while the muscles of clenching and grinding get weak and stay weak.
Botox is another way of helping with this issue where the other option is night guard.
You can refer to grinding and clenching and the effect of them on our overall health in our other posts.
Thank you for reading this.
We are here to help. Do give us a call.
Dr. Khoshand
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