Bruxism Drug Treatment

Bruxism is the name given to grinding your teeth, a condition that has the potential to damage your teeth and cause severe headaches and facial pain in severe cases. Doctors occasionally use prescription medication injections to treat bruxism.

Identification

• To treat bruxism, botulinum toxin, or Botox, is the most-common drug treatment, according to the Mayo Clinic. Doctors typically reserve the use of the medication for severe cases in which other treatments such as mouth guards or behavioral therapy have failed.

Function

• When injected into your cheek area, botulinum toxin inhibits the activity of the nerves in your face. This causes you to relax your jaw and not have the ability to grind your teeth.

Time Frame

• A botulinum toxin drug treatment for bruxism typically takes four to five minutes to complete and can stop or reduce grinding for up to four months, according to plastic surgeon Alexander Rivkin of California.

After the Treatment

• After you receive botulinum toxin injections for bruxism, it is common to experience headaches for the first few hours after treatment. Avoid rubbing your cheeks during this time period because that could cause the botulinum toxin to migrate or move to other parts of your face and lose effectiveness, the Mayo Clinic warns.

Risks

• Infrequently, botulinum toxin treatments cause difficulty swallowing or fatal allergic reactions, according to RxList.