Hypnotherapy for Bruxism

Do you squeeze your jaw muscles when sleeping? Are you or your dentist suspicious that you may be clenching your teeth when sleeping?

Don’t worry, it’s very common and there is a simple yet very effective solution: Hypnotherapy!

Many people start teeth clenching treatment with mouthguards, jaw botox, or other dental procedures. Even though these may be helpful in the short term, it’s inevitable to get tired of constantly trying to protect your teeth and jaw muscles.

Hypnotherapy can be the long-term solution that addresses the root cause. Exactly what you’ve been looking for!

What is bruxism?

Bruxism, a.k.a teeth clenching is a medical term used to describe the involuntary and excessive grinding, clenching, or gnashing of teeth. This often happens unconsciously, typically during sleep, but it can also manifest during waking hours. The repetitive and forceful grinding motion can lead to various dental issues, such as tooth wear, chipping, and sensitivity, as well as jaw pain and headaches.

What causes bruxism?

Stress, anxiety, and misaligned teeth are commonly associated with bruxism, though the exact causes may vary from person to person. Dentists often diagnose bruxism through examination of dental signs and symptoms and may recommend treatment options such as mouthguards to alleviate the impact on teeth and reduce associated discomfort.

As much as these symptomatic treatments may be successful in the short term, long-term improvement comes from addressing the root cause of bruxism. This is why hypnotherapy is a very helpful solution because with hypnosis, the stressors, suppressed emotions, or the causes of anxiety are treated subconsciously.

Hypnotherapy for bruxism

One common and known cause of bruxism is stress and suppressed emotions. We end up holding emotions back subconsciously. This is the area hypnotherapy targets to work with.

Any emotions that we don’t deal with subconsciously, we tend to put back into our bodies. In turn, we experience physical difficulties such as chronic pain, migraines, gut issues, and bruxism in some cases.

Also, think about the onset of anxiety. Oftentimes, we hold our breath, squeeze our shoulders and neck, and sometimes even clench our teeth. It’s possible to become more conscious of it by increasing awareness but especially nocturnal bruxism may be difficult to control without working with the root cause.

Here is how hypnotherapy can help:

Releasing anxiety and stress with hypnosis

Working with the existing stressors and tensions is a must for breaking teeth clenching habit. As long as there are still no healthy coping tools in place, the mind will eventually wander back to bruxism.  

With hypnosis, subconsciously, we can recondition the stress response with a relaxation response. Resolving the existing issues and emotions related to them subconsciously can bring a significant amount of relief.

Additionally, during hypnosis, we can also work on establishing healthy coping mechanisms that will support you without having to hold on to extra stress. For example, the anchor tool is a very helpful hypnotic tool that works well with anxiety.

Working with the root cause with hypnosis

Sometimes we suppress significant issues and topics from the past. These could be trauma memories, betrayal, rejection, neglect, abuse, and much more. Sometimes bruxism is caused by certain sleep issues. No matter what your root cause is, it creates a mark in the subconscious mind that we continuously try to avoid but try to make sense of at the same time. 

During hypnotherapy, the subconscious mind becomes more suggestible than usual, making it safer to reveal the root cause of bruxism. Whether it’s the suppressed emotions, a memory, a person or something completely different, the subconscious mind holds it all. Hypnosis allows us to uncover and process effectively.

Reconditioning the bruxism habit subconsciously

At the end of the day, bruxism becomes a subconscious habit just like everything else. Sometimes even when there are no triggers or reasons, you may find yourself clenching your teeth.

With hypnosis, we can recondition and reprogram the mind to produce a relaxing response rather than teeth clenching. With direct suggestions or metaphors, we can train the subconscious mind and change.

Hypnotherapy can help with bruxism by addressing the root cause, training the mind for relaxation and eliminating the triggers subconsciously.

Eliminating the triggers with hypnosis

You may notice that you clench your teeth more on certain days or after certain interactions you tend to clench your teeth at night. If this is you, you may be dealing with triggering events that lead to teeth clenching subconsciously. 

Whatever the trigger is, it’s almost like a computer code made in your subconscious mind at some point in your life. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be accurate. We can use hypnosis to eliminate these unhealthy triggers and train the subconscious mind to remain calm regardless of any distractions.

Self hypnosis for bruxism

Self hypnosis is a great start for hypnosis beginners. Even though self hypnosis does not put one into a deep state of hypnosis, it is still very helpful to change subconscious beliefs and patterns.

Especially if you have worries about hypnosis or hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis can be helpful to break the ice first. During self-hypnosis you can give yourself positive suggestions and use positive imagery to start changing your habits and release stress.

Overall, self hypnosis seems to be a promising approach for daily stress and anxiety release and helps to stay in control of habits and behaviors. It’s important to note that since you are working on yourself, self-hypnosis requires consistency and repetition.

Success rates of hypnotherapy for bruxism

Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of research studies done to measure the effectiveness of hypnosis for bruxism. However, there are some case studies and reviews that can shed light on what to expect.

In one case that was published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experiential Hypnosis, it was reported that in 7 hypnotherapy sessions, the patient was relieved from bruxism. Moreover, in 1-year follow-up, not only the patient was still free from bruxism but also reported having more assertive relationship skills.

Another study that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, studied 8 individuals suffering from bruxism and reported to have significantly fewer bruxism symptoms such as muscle tension or fascial pain right after.

There are many other case studies and reports pointing to the effectiveness of hypnotherapy for bruxism. Even though the success rates will vary, it can be very promising in the long term.

Final words

Not only bruxism is dangerous for health, but also it affects social life and skills. For one, it can be tiring and frustrating but it can also be embarrassing as others start to notice muscle differences. Hypnosis is a noninvasive subconscious technique that is proven to help with bruxism significantly. It has no side effects and it’s a lot more affordable than the other methods. So why wait? Give hypnotherapy a try today!