Description

While mastication and swallowing, the physiologic processes, are proven to involve tooth contacts, resulting in stresses upon their supporting structures, it’s the forces that are associated with this parafunction, that are thought to be the most damaging. A parafunction such as bruxism can produce additional stress on the components that may be tolerated to a greater extent by healthy tissues but due to the different characteristics of the stress they produce, they may constitute a higher potential for occlusal trauma than the normal functions. In children, bruxism has often remained underdiagnosed or even misdiagnosed. This book describes the prevalence, diagnosis, clinical criteria for examination and treatment for children with bruxism.