Many people suffer from one or more of these symptoms. Unfortunately, misdiagnosis is generally the rule in the medical profession when it comes to jaw joint and neuromuscular disorders of the jaws. Symptoms are often overlooked, ignored or mistakenly attributed to other ailments.

Sometimes, the misaligned bite causes no pain, but it is still responsible for chipped, worn, cracked and shifting teeth. To complicate matters, it is not uncommon for people to feel normal when they have symptoms, because having symptoms is all they have ever experienced.

Jaw joints forced out of alignment by the bite of the teeth can become damaged, noisy and uncomfortable. Physical damage and uncomfortable symptoms vary from intermittent and barely noticeable, to constant and severe.

Teeth, muscles and jaw joints in conflict can cause a variety of physical problems and symptoms:

• Migraines, muscle tension headaches and sinus headaches
• Face or jaw pain
• Muscle twitching
• Neck, shoulder or back pain
• Forward head posturing
• Numbness in arms or fingers
• Sensitive or sore teeth
• Loose or shifting teeth
• Worn, cracked, chipped or broken teeth or dental restorations
• Teeth clenching or grinding
• TMD (temporomandibular/jaw joint dysfunction)
• Clicking, popping or grating sounds in the jaw joints
• Soreness or pain in or around the jaw joints
• Limited jaw movement
• Ringing in the ears
• Congestion or stuffiness of the ears

Home Remedies for Teeth and Jaw

Use warm washcloth.

Another way of relaxing the jaw muscles of your mouth is to put a washcloth dipped in lukewarm water around your face. Make sure that the washcloth runs from one side of your face to the other. Doing this would prevent your jaws from clenching. Head pains will also be prevented. Try to practice this every night before go to sleep and you should be able to experience total relief from teeth grinding in no time.

Pamper yourself with a warm massage and a warm bath.

Teeth grinding is usually triggered by a long day at the office. Stress from too much work is the main reason why grind your teeth at night. To counter stress, allow yourself to enjoy a long warm bath before going to bed. You can also request for a warm massage right after. Doing all of these would relieve your body of stress and give you a good night's sleep.

Sleep on your back.

There's no best position to keep your teeth from clenching other than lying flat on your back as you sleep. Sleeping on your sides would only increase the chances that you'll do some teeth grinding activities during the night. Try to keep yourself from sleeping on your sides or on your stomach.

Drink warm milk or hot herbal tea before going to bed.

If you have to drink something before going to sleep, make sure that it's tea or milk. The warmer they are, the better. Never drink alcohol during the night. Doing so would only make you grind your teeth in your sleep.

Take some calcium and magnesium supplements.

Before going to bed, make sure that you take your medications for bruxism, if you have one. If in case your doctor or the dentist did not prescribe you with anything, you can always settle for some calcium supplements and magnesium supplements.

These two minerals can definitely help preventing instances of teeth grinding. Add these supplements to your daily diet.