Find healthy stress-coping mechanisms to cut down on nighttime tooth grinding.

How you manage stress could make you prone to grinding your teeth while you sleep.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Learning how to handle stress could protect your teeth from nighttime grinding. Such is the implication from a recent study published in the journal Head & Face Medicine, which finds that tooth grinding is more common among people who have unhealthy stress-coping mechanisms.

THE DETAILS: The researchers recruited 69 patients, 48 of whom suffered from the disorder known as sleep bruxism, otherwise known as tooth grinding. Subjects completed surveys that assessed both stress levels as well as coping strategies for dealing with their stress. Not surprisingly, the researchers found that people who ground their teeth at night tended to experience more stress at work and in their daily lives. More surprising is that how the tooth grinders coped with their stress was a big factor as well. The association between stress and tooth grinding was measurably stronger for those who coped with stress in a less-constructive way, through avoidance, escape, rumination (dwelling on a problem), and self-blame, than it was among those who handled stress positively by, for example, knowing how to control a stressful situation or leaning on a social network for support.

WHAT IT MEANS: Learning healthy stress-coping mechanisms is good for your head and your body. "When you're under stress, your body's taking a beating," says Robert Smith, PhD, a performance psychologist based in Waltham, Massachusetts. The trick, he says, is to learn how be more aware of the tension in your body, and find simple ways to handle your problems more effectively.

Keep reading to learn healthy stress-coping mechanisms.