Treating Bruxism – Biofeedback Methods May be Effective
Although millions of Americans suffer with Bruxism, the involuntary or semi-involuntary grinding, clenching, or bracing of teeth, its exact causes are poorly understood, and effective treatments are similarly elusive. Meanwhile, patients continue to suffer damage to their teeth, jaw problems, sleep disturbances, headaches, and a host of other problems that are associated with or caused directly by Bruxism.
In 2024, the standard treatment for most cases of Bruxism as recommended by dentists is mouth guards. Mouth guards are made from soft or hard plastic and can be custom made to fit over some or all of the upper or lower teeth. Mainly, they help to protect the teeth from damage due to Bruxism. However they generally do not help to stop a person from clenching or grinding their teeth. In fact, in some cases, the mouth guard causes an increase in the clenching and grinding activity! Other treatments for Bruxism exist ranging from Botox to jaw yoga, and all of them seem to have mixed results for users. Thankfully new research, treatments, and products are constantly being developed, all of which should lead to greater success in treatment of Bruxism.
Biofeedback is currently being used and studied as a possible means for treating Bruxism. Biofeedback is a technique where patients can learn to control involuntary movements. With biofeedback, patients are made aware of an involuntary movement, such as jaw muscle activation in bruxism, through some physical, auditory, or visual stimulus. Then, they respond to that stimulus by actively stopping the involuntary movement. For instance, while you are sleeping your jaw muscles involuntarily activate and you clamp down on your teeth with extreme force. You are not aware that this is happening because you are asleep. Then you hear a sound, or feel a little buzz. It makes you aware that you’re doing something that you ought not to do, and you instantly relax your jaw. Over time this response may become more and more automatic and could help to change the unwanted base behavior (jaw muscle activation).
Multiple studies on the use of biofeedback as a treatment for Bruxism have yielded hopeful results. One such study concluded that with biofeedback patients significantly reduced the number and duration of Sleep Bruxism episodes each night, without significantly disturbing patients’ sleep. Another such study had similar results, using a control group to confirm that the results were indeed a result of the biofeedback device as opposed, for instance, to a natural personal ebb and flow in the severity of the condition.
Zerene uses biofeedback and extensive data collection and analysis to leverage the huge potential of biofeedback as a treatment for Sleep Bruxism. The data collection and analysis help us to have a better understanding of each individual’s Sleep Bruxism severity and habits. We use the data to dynamically inform the use of biofeedback to treat Sleep Bruxism. In other words while you sleep Zerene collects data about your response to biofeedback while simultaneously applying the biofeedback stimulus. After every session the data is analyzed to understand whether the biofeedback training was effective, and what might need to be done to improve its efficacy, or even if you’ve reached the end of the effective dosage of training and it’s time for a break.
Biofeedback is potentially a highly effective way to treat Bruxism, but it is also a more active treatment that requires intention and action on the part of each patient. For instance if you have a headache and you take an aspirin, which alleviates the pain, there is a relatively low amount of action required on your part. On the other hand if you have a headache, determine that the headaches are being caused by a muscle imbalance in your neck that is causing poor posture, and then you go to physical therapy to resolve the muscle imbalance, there will be a relatively high amount of action required on your part. In one case you treat the symptom and it disappears temporarily. In the other you treat the cause of the headache with the goal of long-term resolution of the symptoms. Biofeedback works more like physical therapy than like aspirin. Patients must consciously decide to take an active role in the treatment, and there may be some discomfort along the way. However, with persistence and a smart approach through the use of data, this treatment modality may present a hopeful path to treating the root mechanism of Bruxism, and ultimately resolve or at least improve its many symptoms.
References:
Biofeedback in medicine: who, when, why and how?