Teeth grinding: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What teeth grinding is

Teeth grinding, or bruxism, is clenching the jaw or grinding the teeth together without meaning to. It happens most often during sleep, when people are usually unaware of it until a partner hears it or a dentist notices worn teeth. Some people also clench during the day, especially when concentrating or under pressure.

It can cause jaw pain, headaches and earache on waking, worn or broken teeth, and disturbed sleep. It is linked to stress and anxiety, sleep problems such as sleep apnoea, alcohol, caffeine and smoking, and some medicines, including certain antidepressants. It is common in children and often fades as they grow. A dentist can fit a mouth guard or splint to protect the teeth at night. Relaxation, better sleep habits and treating any sleep disorder can also help.

The emotional meaning of teeth grinding

The teeth stand for decisions, and for a certain kind of aggressiveness. Spiritually, grinding is an unconscious anger rising to the surface, a repressed rage that often finds its way out at night.

Nervous inside, and holding back

You may be very nervous inside, holding yourself back from saying or doing certain things. Unable to come to clear, precise decisions, you grind your teeth, and the grinding becomes the physical expression of sadness and suppressed aggressiveness about a situation you find unbearable.

A door that creaks

Like a door that needs oiling, grinding teeth are read as the fear of opening up to take decisions. The noise is a kind of inner moan. You may feel caught, as if under a spell you cannot break.

Speaking in silence

At night you "speak in silence", releasing what you could not put into words during the day: everything left unsaid, everything buried inside. The jaw does the talking that the voice did not do.

Children and authority

Children grind their teeth very often. Early in life is when you learn about power games and the different relationships of authority. If you are afraid to give your opinion because you feel too small next to your parents, a childminder or your teachers, the teeth may grind. If your child grinds their teeth, the question is a gentle one: is there something they find hard to say, and is there room for them to say it?

Head against heart

Whatever your age, grinding is read as great inner tension. There is a strong split between the head and the heart, between reason and passion, and the result is a kind of passivity: nothing moves, and the pressure stays in the jaw.

A gentler way to hold it

Grinding can damage the teeth, so a dentist's protection comes first. The emotional perspective asks what is being ground down at night.

• Notice without pushing it away. Let yourself become aware of the tension and the feelings behind it, just as they are now.
• Say it in the day. Find one place to say what you would otherwise carry to bed: a friend, a journal, a voice note.
• Welcome your sensitivity. The emotions that rise to the surface are allowed to be there.
• Take one decision. Uncertainty creates more tension than taking the step that is needed. Choose a small decision and make it.
• Let your head and heart talk. Write down what each of them wants, and look for the place where they meet.