BRUXISM IS A medical condition characterised by grinding teeth together or clenching your jaw, often without realising it. This repetitive clenching and grinding often occurs at night and can result in pain in your face or jaw, and give you headaches or earache. Over time, it can also damage your teeth and change the shape of your face due to the increased use of your jaw muscles (temporalis muscles) and chewing (masseter) muscles.
Research suggests the condition is becoming more common; a study carried out by Dr Alona Emodi-Periman and Professor Ilana Eli found that the prevalence of jaw clenching and bruxism increased to 47 per cent from its pre-pandemic level of 35 per cent. Jaw clenching in the daytime shot up from around 17 per cent
