by: MaryBeth Gangemi
: Integrative Breathing & Myofunctional Therapist | Original Strength Instructor
Do you wake up with a sore jaw, aching teeth, or headaches? Has your dentist noticed unusual wear or cracked teeth? Maybe your partner hears grinding sounds at night. If any of this sounds familiar, you may be dealing with bruxism—a common condition where people clench or grind their teeth, sometimes without even knowing it.
Two Types of Bruxism:
Awake Bruxism occurs during the day, often linked to stress, concentration, or posture.
Sleep Bruxism happens during sleep and may go unnoticed unless symptoms or sounds are observed.
Bruxism can affect people of all ages and may increase with stress, airway issues, poor breathing habits, or nervous system overload.
Sleep Bruxism & Airway Health
Nighttime grinding is often part of a bigger picture—especially disrupted sleep and airway dysfunction. Research shows that up to 90% of grinding episodes occur during micro-arousals—brief moments when your brain and body partially wake up during sleep. These arousals can be triggered by:
· Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
· Snoring
· Stress and poor nervous system regulation
· Mouth breathing or poor tongue posture
OSA is a leading cause. As many as one in two adults with sleep apnea also grind their teeth, possibly as a reflex to reopen the airway.
Women—especially in perimenopause and menopause—are at increased risk due to hormonal shifts that affect airway tone.
How Do I Know If Sleep Apnea or Dysfunctional Breathing Is a Factor?
Common signs include:
· Snoring or gasping during sleep
· Fatigue or brain fog during the day
· Morning headaches or dry mouth
· Waking up frequently
· Teeth grinding or clenching
Tools like the STOP-BANG for adults or BEARS Sleep Screening Tool for children can help screen for risk.
STOP-BANG:
S – Snore: Do you snore loudly (louder than talking or loud enough to be heard through closed doors)?
T – Tired: Do you often feel tired, fatigued, or sleepy during the daytime?
O – Observed: Has anyone observed you stop breathing during your sleep?
P – Pressure: Do you have or are you being treated for high blood pressure?
B – BMI: Is your BMI more than 35 kg/m²? (Calculate your BMI here.)
A – Age: Are you older than 50 years?
N – Neck: Is your neck circumference greater than 16 inches (40 cm)?
G – Gender: Are you male?
STOP-BANG: Each “Yes” answer = 1 point, a “No” answer = 0
High risk of OSA: 5-8 points
Moderate risk of OSA: 3-4 points
Low risk of OSA: 0-2 points
BEARS Sleep Screening Tool:
B – Does my child have difficulty falling asleep?
E – Excessive daytime sleepiness: Is my child difficult to wake in the morning? Does my child seem groggy during the day? Does my child seem tired during the day? For children, tired can translate as moody, hyperactive, “out-of-it,” as well as sleepy.
A – Awakening during the night? Does my child awaken during the night and have trouble falling back to sleep? Is anything disrupting my child’s sleep?
R – Regularity and duration of sleep: How many hours of sleep does my child need at this age and is my child getting that sleep?
S – Snoring: Does my child snore? Does my child breathe loudly, open mouth breathe while asleep, cough, gasp, choke, or stop breathing?
Any “Yes” answer warrants further discussion with a healthcare professional.
What Makes Our Approach Different?
Instead of treating just the teeth, we support your brain, body, and breath using a whole-person approach!
1. Integrative Breathing Therapy
Breathing is both a symptom and a solution. We don’t just correct mouth breathing—we use breath as medicine to help regulate the nervous system, reduce jaw tension, and restore restful sleep.
You’ll learn how to:
· Rebuild nasal and diaphragmatic breathing
· Use breath to calm your system and reduce clenching
· Improve airway stability and body posture
· Heal with breath—not just correct it
2. Myofunctional Therapy / Orafacial Function
Your jaw, tongue, lips, and facial muscles affect how you breathe, sleep, and function. We retrain these muscles to:
· Reduce grinding and tension
· Support nasal breathing
· Improve tongue posture and jaw alignment
· Correct dysfunctional or inefficient swallow patterns
· Address habits linked to tongue ties or restriction of tongue mobility
· Optimize oral posture and facial balance
3. Restorative Movement (Original Strength)
Gentle, reflexive movement calms the nervous system and resets the body. You’ll experience:
· Breath-integrated postural work
· Movement that supports alignment from head to toe
· Techniques to feel safe and grounded in your body
· Increase physical resiliency so your body has reflexive strength
4. Systems Health Care: Root-Cause Medicine
As part of the Systems Health Care team, I work alongside experienced doctors using Applied Kinesiology and Systems Health Care techniques developed by Dr. Stephen Gangemi. Systems Health Care is a comprehensive hands-on diagnostic and treatment approach that assess the why behind your symptoms and offers a personalized plan that supports your body’s ability to heal and function optimally.
Address Grinding, Sleep issues, and contributing factors:
· Hormonal or metabolic imbalances
· Inflammation or infection
· Nutritional considerations such as calcium and vitamin D levels, magnesium, and iron
· Cranial and structural patterns affecting the airway or other compensations
· Digestive health issues such as frequent burping, constipation, chronic cough, or GERD which is a well-recognized risk factor for teeth grinding
· The nervous system and neurotransmitter imbalances
You don’t have to figure it out alone. We help you connect the dots and build a personalized plan.
You Were Designed to Heal
Grinding isn’t just a dental issue—it’s often a signal from the body that something deeper is out of balance, whether it’s related to stress, airway restriction, poor sleep quality, or muscle tension in the jaw and face or an unmet nutritional need. Whether it’s a sign of magnesium deficiency, nervous system dysregulation, or a breathing imbalance, grinding is worth paying attention to—it’s your body’s way of asking for support.
With the right tools and support, your breath can calm your system, your muscles can relearn healthy function, and your sleep can become restorative again.
Let’s explore your sleep, your breathing, and your path to healing!
