Truth: The phrase "grinding your teeth at night and crawling insects in your stomach" is widely circulated among the people. Some parenting websites even suggest taking insect repellent just because children grind their teeth. Is this a fact? We'll know today.
What is bruxism?
The phenomenon of grinding teeth is called bruxism in stomatology. As the name implies, it refers to the habit of grinding teeth habitually when sleeping, or even unconsciously during the day.
In most cases, the occurrence of grinding teeth is accompanied by a "wake-up response" (the sleeper may suddenly wake up or sleep shallowly, and may be accompanied by physiological changes such as limb movement, accelerated heart rate and breathing), so bruxism at night is also considered as a part of the wake-up response.
Why grind your teeth?
When the coordination function of nerve conduction pathway is disordered, voluntary movement of limbs may occur. At present, it is considered that dysfunction of basal ganglia and abnormal secretion of transmitters in central nervous system may be important neurobiological mechanisms of bruxism. Some drugs that interfere with neurotransmitter metabolism do have an effect on bruxism.
For adult bruxism, the influence of psychological and mental factors on the nervous system has always been considered as the main reason. Multivariate analysis shows that excessive life stress is an important risk factor for bruxism. Therefore, people who have more psychological problems and are prone to depression and stress disorder are more likely to become bruxism patients.
In addition to psychological factors, malocclusion, occlusal interference and some systemic diseases (such as allergies, endocrine disorders, malnutrition and digestive system diseases, etc. ) are thought to cause bruxism. However, up to now, it is difficult for these studies to draw positive conclusions, and the cause of molars is still controversial.
Children's molars and intestinal parasites
Different from adult bruxism, the discussion of children's molars usually refers to parasites. Although the incidence varies from place to place, about 30% of children under 10 have molar problems. Because children are also high-risk groups of intestinal parasitic diseases (especially in developing countries), people may associate them because of their similar high-risk rates.
In fact, it's not just folk rumors. As early as the 1960 s, there was a view that "intestinal parasitic diseases may be one of the pathogenic factors of molars"; In the 1980s, some scholars put forward the view that "intestinal parasites are the risk factors of molars", and thought that if pinworm disease was prevented, the incidence of molars might be reduced. Although this view has been put forward for twenty or thirty years, there are not many clinical studies related to it. Searching medical database (PubMed), only two controlled studies directly related to this subject were found.
One of the studies was published in 2008. In Brazil, about 10%-20% of children are infected with intestinal parasites. Brazilian scientists selected children who didn't take anthelmintic drugs for nearly two months for a control study, and found that there was no significant difference in the probability of intestinal parasitic diseases between children with molars and children without bruxism, ranging from 30% to 40%.
In another study published on 20 10, Iranian researchers conducted a control study on 100 kindergarten children. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the overall infection rate of intestinal parasites between molars and non-molars (22%: 16%), which was similar to the first study. However, the infection rate of digestive tract pathogenic parasites in children with molars was significantly higher than that in children without bruxism (22%:6%).
Because the research on parasites is very regional, it will be more meaningful to have the research data of children in China when discussing this issue. Unfortunately, no directly related controlled study from China was found in PubMed. In China medical database, a retrospective study on children's molars mentioned the infection rate of parasites. However, due to the fact that the children in this study "regularly took anthelmintics in the past six months", all 68 children with molars were negative for parasites, so it is not clear whether there is a correlation between children's molars and parasites, and it is impossible to explore their causal relationship because of the lack of control.
It is not advisable to grind teeth to repel insects.
After enumerating some research data at home and abroad, we might as well analyze the question itself: Does grinding teeth mean there are ascaris in the stomach? Although the infection rate of intestinal parasites in children is not low in two foreign studies, there is only one case of ascaris infection, and the child has no bruxism. Therefore, the statement that "grinding your teeth at night is due to roundworms in your stomach" has not been confirmed.
Of course, perhaps in folk parlance, the word "Ascaris" means not only Ascaris, but all intestinal parasites. However, the above two studies failed to give a clear conclusion.
First of all, both of these studies come to the conclusion that the overall parasite infection rate has nothing to do with grinding teeth, while the conclusion that "pathogenic parasites may be related to bruxism" drawn from Iranian research is very enlightening, but it cannot be said that "pathogenic parasites can cause grinding teeth". In addition, this study did not explain whether the respondents used insect repellent, and this detail may have a great impact on the results, making the reliability of the results decline; Secondly, these studies only pay attention to the parasitic infection rate of molars and non-molars, and it will be more comprehensive to analyze the incidence of bruxism from the perspective of intestinal parasitic infection and non-infected people. It can be seen that more, better and more targeted research is needed to answer this question accurately.
Therefore, it is not appropriate to use molars to speculate whether children are infected with parasites or even to guide the use of insect repellent. At present, the detection methods of intestinal parasites are mature and accurate, so it is safer to go to a hospital for examination and use drugs under the guidance of a doctor. As for bruxism, if it is serious, it will be harmful to the body. It is best to go to the hospital for relief.
Conclusion: Although the conclusion that "grinding teeth must have nothing to do with intestinal parasites" can not be drawn according to the current evidence, it is absolutely not advisable to use insect repellent indiscriminately just because of the symptoms of grinding teeth. At present, the detection methods of intestinal parasites are very mature and accurate. It is safer to go to the hospital for examination and take medicine under the guidance of a doctor. If you encounter serious molar problems, you may wish to go to the hospital for help.