Bruxism is the clinical word for grinding or clenching your teeth, often while you sleep.

In kid words

Bruxism is just a fancy word for grinding your teeth, like when you rub the top ones and bottom ones together while you are asleep. A lot of kids do it without ever waking up or even knowing it happened. If your mom or dad ever mentions hearing it, that just means they want a dentist to take a peek, not anything to be scared of.

The parent version

Bruxism is the clinical term for grinding or clenching the teeth, most often during sleep. Many children simply grow out of it during the years when the permanent set arrives.

What actually causes it in any one child is honestly not settled. Dentists weigh a number of possible factors, but the evidence in children is genuinely unsettled, so no single explanation is solid enough to state as fact. That uncertainty is part of why the sensible response is rarely alarm. It is simply to mention it, plainly, the next time you are in for a checkup rather than let it sit as a worry with nowhere to go.

Where you might hear it at our office

This word tends to come up if you have ever heard grinding at night and wondered whether it is worth mentioning. It is. Bruxism can leave signs on the teeth themselves, like flattened edges or unusually smooth spots, and that kind of wear is something we check at every cleaning and exam. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that rhythm, a visit every six months, for most children, and catching new wear early is one of the reasons why.

If another word from a visit is still a mystery, the rest of the dictionary is right here.

Related words

Words that often come up alongside bruxism: enamel, night guard, bite.