Is there anything --especially alternative health, nutrients, or herbs that will help stop severe bruxism?

(toothgrinding)..what causes this..

The goals of treatment are to reduce pain, prevent permanent damage to the teeth, and reduce clenching behaviors as much as possible.

To help relieve pain, there are may self-care steps you can take at home. For example:
- Relax your facial and jaw muscles throughout the day. The goal is to make facial relaxation a habit.
- Massage the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and face. Search carefully for small, painful nodules called trigger points that can refer pain throughout the head and face. An excellent resource is The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Claire Davies.
- Learn physical therapy stretching exercises to help the restore a normal balance to the action of the muscles and joint on each side of the head. An excellent resource is Taking Control of TMJ by Robert Uppgaard.
- Apply ice or wet heat to sore jaw muscles. Either can have a beneficial effect.
- Avoid eating hard foods like nuts, candies, steak.
- Drink plenty of water every day.
- Try to reduce your daily stress and learn relaxation techniques.
- Get plenty of sleep.

To prevent damage to the teeth, mouth guards or appliances (splints) have been used since the 1930's to treat teeth grinding, clenching, and TMJ disorders. A splint may help protect the teeth from the pressure of clenching. It may also actually help reduce clenching behaviors, but some people find that it makes their clenching worse. In others, the symptoms go away as long as they use the splint, but pain returns when they stop or the splint loses its effectiveness over time.

There are many different types of splints. Some fit over the top of the teeth, some on the bottom. They may be designed to keep your jaw in a more relaxed position or provide some other function. If one type doesn't work, another may.

For example, a splint called the NTI-tss fits over just the front teeth. The idea is to keep all of your back teeth (molars) completely separated, under the theory that most clenching is done on these back teeth. With the NTI, the only contact is between the splint and a bottom front tooth.

As a next phase after splint therapy, orthodontic adjustment of the bite pattern may be beneficial for some people. Surgery should be considered a last resort.

Finally, there have been numerous approaches to try to help people unlearn their clenching behaviors. These are more successful for daytime clenching, since nighttime clenching is cannot be consciously stopped. In some people, just relaxing and modifying daytime behavior is enough to reduce nighttime bruxism. Methods to directly modify nighttime clenching have not been well studied. They include various biofeedback devices, self hypnosis, and other alternative therapies.

People, Adult mostly brux more when they are stressed.

In the day it is easier to learn to catch yourself bruxing and stop the behavior.

At night you can stop your self by exhausting yourself during the day a good 1 hour work out should do it. As far as herbs go, if you know of any anxiolytic herb try them.

not that I have heard of but you could try a dental plate to reduce the amount of damage you are doing to your teeth.

I clinch and grind constantly..it is subconsious and i never realize i am doing it...i sleep with a splint made by my TMJ specialist and that helps prevent wear and tear on my teeth but if i do realize i am grinding i stop and take a few deep breaths and consider what may be making me grind...stress, bordom, anxiety....you may wnat to see a chiropractor or massage therapist too i hear the chiropractor can adjust your neck and jaw...i just dont have insurance that covers chiropractic care!!

i'd like to know too, same problem here since i was a little kid. still do it.

whats bruxism

Try taking calcium before you go to bed at night.
It helps relax you.
Also chamomille tea will help relax you before bed.

All these answers are pretty good. I've suffered some with this and found that the mouth guards only lead to increased pain in your face and head if not your body also. Mouth guards do nothing to solve the problem. Valarian root is an herb that relaxes you gently. It has a tendency to quiet the mind in my experience and with this comes of feeling of relief that leads in turn to a desire to rest or sleep if you've been really stressed. Valarian root is a good "alternative" fix. Mental discipline and focus can sometimes help also. It's difficult when you're in alot of pain but if you can get rid of other people, noises and stressors and turn your focus inward you can progressively relax you're muscles by taking small steps trying to guide your natural breathing patterns to a slower pace and a deeper inhale and greater exhale. Just by the smallest increments though. Trying to hard will defeat the purpose.