Dr. Katie To explains that tooth grinding isn't the real problem, but a symptom of nighttime oxygen deprivation and sleep-disordered breathing. When your body chokes awake, it grinds your teeth. This same oxygen loss causes fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, and autoimmune issues.
If your dentist told you that you're grinding your teeth, there's a good chance they missed the real diagnosis. Yep, grinding is usually not the problem. It's the emergency alarm. Imagine choking a little bit hundreds of times every night. Your brain panics. Your jaw moves forward. Your teeth grind. Your body is literally trying to save itself. So when I see flat teeth, Cracked teeth, worn teeth, I don't just see grinding. I see a possible oxygen problem. I had patients spend years treating fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, autoimmune symptoms, only to discover they were not sleeping. They were surviving. There's a huge difference. You can't heal a body that's fighting for oxygen all night.
