Bruxism is a term that refers to excessive grinding of the teeth or clenching. It can cause a variety of problems, including excessive wear, pain in jaw muscles, or even the breaking of teeth. It falls under a broader category of TMJ disorders.

Excessive wear of the teeth

This wear may be noticed as a flattening of the back teeth, or as the shortening of front teeth. Sometimes half of the front teeth or more may be worn down. Sometimes the wear is manifested as notches in the teeth at the gumline. For years, many dentists blamed these notches on over-zealous toothbrushing, but in recent years it has been discovered that the notches are caused by slight flexing of the teeth from bruxism. These notches expose areas of dentin that may be very sensitive to cold or air.

Breaking of teeth

As teeth wear, the edges of front teeth and the cusps or corners of back teeth will begin to show microfractures or cracks. These cracks can be seen with magnified vision or an intraoral camera.

Sensitive teeth

Usually a generalized soreness and/or a cold sensitivity.

for more information, see: http://austindental.com/more/bruxism.shtml

Because of uncomfortable jaw joints, many patients clench and grind their teeth. This can lead to hot and cold sensitivity in the teeth. The clenching and grinding can cause overgrowth of the supporting bone.

Read Dr. Hall's blog posts about TMJ.