Unlike most of the adult population, you don’t snore. You’ve never sleepwalked. You certainly don’t talk in your sleep. Somehow you seem to have escaped all the nasty little nocturnal habits that afflict others. Or have you?

If you find yourself waking up with a sore jaw or even a headache and your teeth seem to be getting more sensitive to heat and cold, you need to consider the possibility that you’re a nighttime tooth grinder.

Called bruxism, tooth grinding afflicts up to 50 percent of the population. If you have bruxism, you clench your teeth when you sleep and grind them together. Since you can bite up to six times harder when you’re sleeping than you can when you’re awake, this can cause a lot of damage if not corrected.

Some of the effects of bruxism are:

• pain and damage to the gums and teeth;
• sore facial muscles, headaches and earaches;
• teeth so ground down they become shortened;
• the enamel can wear away, causing teeth to become more sensitive to heat and cold;
• the pressure from grinding can fracture teeth and crack fillings; and
• damage to the TMJ, which is the small joint that connects the lower jaw to the upper jaw allowing you to chew and talk

If you think you might be grinding your teeth, you should make an appointment to see your dentist. You’ll probably be fitted with a custom mouthguard you can wear to bed, which will take the brunt of the pressure that would otherwise be directed at your unprotected teeth. Don’t delay. See your Michigan Dental Association dentist today.