Teeth grinding and jaw clenching -- or bruxism, to give it its proper medical name -- is an issue we see and treat quite often here in our UK hypnotherapy clinic

Many times the person suffering from bruxism is referred by a particularly insightful dentist who realises that this condition is linked to psychological causes. Other clients, of course, simply refer themselves and call when they have accepted that the problem just won't disappear by itself.

Very often the person suffering from bruxism - known as a 'bruxer' - finds him or herself grinding teeth while sleeping and may have been given a plastic mouth guard to wear at night in order to prevent further damage to the teeth.

Though such measures may be necessary - and sometimes essential - to provide an immediate protection for the teeth, they are best used as a temporary stop-gap measure.

No-one really denies that having to sleep with a plastic mouth guard in place is a pretty uncomfortable way to get a good night's sleep.

A mouth guard, though, operates solely at the level of the symptom. Yet it does not address the driver, the real reason that causes a person to grind his or her teeth in the first place.

And this is where effective hypnotherapy can be extremely useful.

In my clinical experience of treating this condition, I have often found a real degree of underlying stress and anxiety acting as a trigger for teeth grinding and jaw clenching.

For some, the origins of bruxism lie in the present or in the recent past -- a poor relationship, or stressful job, for example.

Often the cause can be found in some apparently unrelated past experience - often, though not always, having occurred in childhood. The experience which produced the anxiety has been recognised as being unfair, and so it quite naturally produced feelings of anger which were not properly processed and expressed at the time they were felt.

Human emotions, as we know, can be extremely powerful things. Yet one thing we can be sure of is that they are also relatively short-lived - except when they are denied and buried inside, when they are forced down and bottled up.

When this happens then they never really give us peace. Like monsters from the deep, they keep on returning and vying for our attention, making their presence known in one way or another until they can no longer be ignored or denied.

When this happens, they need to be effectively processed and treated if further and more damaging problems are to be avoided.

You see, because the anxiety or the anger was not allowed real expression - or 'processed' - at the time it was felt, this powerful energy became internalised. And the result of this, of course, is that when the person's conscious mind is 'off guard' - focused on other matters, day dreaming or asleep, for example - the subconscious mind finds a way to release some of its energy, grabbing the attention by clenching the jaw and grinding the teeth.

In a way, it's as though the subconscious is trying to 'get its teeth into' the anger or anxiety or stress and release it.

Unfortunately, what it is doing is not resolving the underlying issues that continue to generate the stress, anxiety, or anger, but to damage the individual's teeth and seriously jeopardise their oral health.

Effective treatment for bruxism through the use of transformational hypnotherapy requires that the individual's subconscious mind is first taught a better and less harmful way of handling stress, anxiety and anger during sleep.

With this accomplished, the underlying reasons for this behaviour are next uncovered and effectively neutralised.

Through the advanced techniques of transformational hypnotherapy, the subconscious mind can be helped to 're-process' the past experience so that the mind no longer needs to find release by forcing the body into jaw clenching and teeth grinding behaviours.

If you have been experiencing the damaging and all too worrying condition of teeth grinding known as bruxism, then a fully trained and qualified transformational hypnotherapist can really help you put an end to this worrying situation.

In properly trained and experienced hands, transformational hypnotherapy can indeed bring real relief from bruxism, allowing you to sleep without having to suffer the discomfort of a night guard.