Teeth grinding, known clinically as bruxism, can be reduced through a combination of lifestyle changes, stress management, dental devices, and in some cases medical treatment. The right approach depends on whether you grind during the day, at night, or both, since these two forms have different triggers and respond to different strategies.
Why You Grind: Daytime vs. Nighttime Causes
Daytime grinding is closely tied to stress and heightened alertness. You may catch yourself clenching during a tense commute, a difficult conversation, or while concentrating at a desk. Because it happens while you’re awake, it’s more responsive to habit-based strategies and self-awareness techniques.
Nighttime grinding is a different animal. It’s driven by brief arousals in your sleep cycle that activate your autonomic nervous system, the system that controls involuntary functions like heart rate and breathing. Sleep apnea and anxiety are the two most common risk factors. Certain medications can also trigger it, including common antidepressants (SSRIs and SNRIs), stimulants, and antipsychotics. Hereditary factors play a role too, so if a parent grinds their teeth, you’re more likely to as well.
Heavy alcohol use, tobacco, excessive caffeine, and high-stress life circumstances contribute to both types.
Cut Back on Coffee
Coffee has a measurable effect on nighttime grinding intensity. In a study using overnight sleep monitoring, coffee drinkers had a bruxism episode index of 4.59 episodes per hour compared to 2.87 in non-drinkers. That’s roughly 60% more grinding activity. Interestingly, black tea consumption showed no significant effect on grinding intensity, suggesting the issue isn’t just caffeine but something specific to coffee’s chemical profile or the larger doses of caffeine it delivers. If you grind at night, cutting coffee or at least limiting it to mornings is one of the simplest changes you can make.
Build Awareness During the Day
For daytime grinding, the most effective behavioral tool is biofeedback. This involves wearing a small sensor on your jaw muscles that alerts you (with a sound or visual signal) whenever you clench. A systematic review found that auditory biofeedback significantly reduced both sustained clenching and rhythmic grinding during the day after just two consecutive days of use over one week. The benefits even carried over into nighttime grinding, with significant reductions in both types of jaw muscle activity during sleep.
Even without a formal biofeedback device, you can build your own awareness habit. Set periodic reminders on your phone throughout the day. When the reminder goes off, check your jaw position. Your teeth should be slightly apart, lips together, tongue resting against the roof of your mouth. This “lips together, teeth apart” position is the resting state your jaw naturally prefers. Over time, you’ll catch clenching episodes earlier and more often.
Manage Stress and Muscle Tension
Since stress is the primary driver of awake bruxism and a major contributor to the sleep variety, stress reduction isn’t just helpful, it’s central to treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation exercises, and regular physical activity are all used clinically to address grinding. The goal is to lower your baseline level of nervous system activation so your jaw muscles aren’t primed to clench.
Jaw-specific exercises can also help. Gently stretching your jaw by opening it wide (without forcing), massaging the muscles at the angle of your jaw, and applying a warm washcloth to the sides of your face before bed can relax the masseter, the powerful muscle responsible for clenching. Some people find that consciously relaxing the jaw and face muscles as part of a bedtime routine reduces overnight grinding.
Consider Magnesium
Magnesium plays a direct role in muscle relaxation and nervous system regulation. It suppresses the body’s stress-hormone pathways, reduces neural excitability, and counteracts the calcium influx that makes muscles contract. When magnesium is low, symptoms include neuromuscular irritability, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, and heightened sensitivity to stress, a cluster that overlaps heavily with bruxism triggers.
No clinical trials have tested a specific magnesium dose for grinding, but the biological rationale is strong. Many adults don’t get enough magnesium through diet alone. Foods rich in magnesium include pumpkin seeds, almonds, spinach, and dark chocolate. If you suspect a deficiency, a supplement combining magnesium with vitamin B6 may be particularly helpful, as this combination has been linked to improvements in neural excitability and orofacial movement disorders.
Mouth Guards and Splints
A mouth guard won’t stop you from grinding, but it protects your teeth from damage and can reduce the force your jaw muscles generate. Two main types exist. Stabilization splints (like the Michigan splint) cover all your upper or lower teeth and are made from hard acrylic. They’re the most commonly prescribed option and tend to be more comfortable for long-term wear. The other option, a smaller device that covers only the front teeth (the NTI-tss), has shown more effectiveness at reducing jaw muscle activation during sleep but is less comfortable for many people.
Custom-fitted guards from a dentist outperform over-the-counter versions in both fit and durability. A poorly fitting guard can actually change your bite over time, so if you plan to wear one regularly, a professional fit is worth the investment. Your dentist can also check for signs of existing tooth wear, since grinding can erode enamel on all visible tooth surfaces without you noticing until the damage is significant.
Botox for Severe Grinding
When other approaches haven’t worked, injections of botulinum toxin into the masseter muscle can weaken it enough to reduce grinding force. In a controlled trial, low-dose injections on both sides of the jaw eliminated active bruxism symptoms and reduced pain for about three months, after which symptoms gradually returned. The average time before effectiveness wore off was roughly 3.5 months, meaning repeat injections are needed a few times per year to maintain results. Higher doses (ranging from 20 to 30 units per side in various studies) are also used depending on the severity. This approach is typically reserved for people with significant pain or tooth damage who haven’t responded to conservative measures.
Check for Sleep Apnea
If you grind at night, it’s worth investigating whether a breathing problem is driving it. In a study using overnight sleep monitoring, grinding occurred in 54% of people with obstructive sleep apnea compared to 27% of those without it. The connection may be protective: one hypothesis is that the jaw pushes forward during grinding episodes to reopen a partially collapsed airway. This mechanism seems most active in mild to moderate sleep apnea, where grinding rates were highest (around 62-64%), and less active in severe cases where the airway collapses too completely for jaw movement to help.
Signs that sleep apnea might be involved include snoring, waking up with a dry mouth, morning headaches, and daytime sleepiness. If you treat the apnea (usually with a CPAP machine or a mandibular advancement device), grinding often decreases as a result, since the underlying trigger for those sleep arousals is removed.
Putting a Plan Together
The most effective approach combines several strategies. Start with the lifestyle factors you can control immediately: reduce coffee intake, limit alcohol, and address stress through exercise or relaxation practices. Add jaw awareness during the day using the “lips together, teeth apart” check. If you grind at night, get a custom mouth guard to protect your teeth while you work on the underlying causes. If you snore or wake up feeling unrefreshed, ask about a sleep study. And if grinding is causing significant pain or dental damage despite these steps, discuss botulinum toxin injections or biofeedback therapy with your provider. Most people see meaningful improvement once they address the right combination of triggers rather than relying on a single fix.