Bruxism - A Periodontal Overview

Abstract

Tooth grinding is an activity particularly important to the dentist because of breakage of dental restoration, tooth damage, induction of temporal headache and temporomandibular disorder [1]. The term para function was introduced by Drum to suggest distinction between occlusion stress exerted during mastication and swallowing and occlusal stress which are brought into action outside of the normal function. Para functional activities are non-functional oromandibular or lingual activities that includes Jaw clenching, bruxism, tooth grinding, tooth tapping, cheek biting, lip biting, object biting etc. [2,3]. That can occur alone or in combination and are different from functional activities like chewing, speaking and swallowing