After a long day at work, it's nice to get home and unwind before retreating for a fitful rest at bedtime. But if you often return home stressed and have little opportunity to de-stress, you could suffer from night-time bruxism.

According to research, anxiety and stress can cause a person to grind their teeth at night. Grinding your teeth at night is not the same as grinding your teeth during the day. During the day, you can control the pressure you exert when you grit or grind. But at night, you have no control over the pressure your jaw exerts, and thus you could do some serious damage to your teeth and gums.

When you get home after a stressful day, take the time to unwind before you go to bed at night. Meditation, long hot baths and gentle exercise can help.

During the day, millions of bacteria cling to and breed on your teeth. These bacterial colonies create sticky films on your teeth that make it easy for them to live on the smooth enamel surface. Brushing at night removes these colonies from your teeth. But more importantly, brushing removes the food particles that feed oral bacteria.

If you don't brush at night, the food particles clinging to the tissues in your mouth will remain to feed and sustain the bacterial organisms living on your teeth. But these organisms produce acid that gradually eats away at tooth enamel. And without saliva or water to wash them away, as long as you sleep, these bacterial organisms will remain on your teeth.

mouth will dry out. The most harmful bacteria, like streptococcus mutans, thrive in this dry environment, especially if food is available.

Saliva kills bacteria, which is why if you sleep with a dry mouth, your teeth will be at the mercy of oral bacteria.

If you don't eat enough food during the day, the chances are good that you might snack at night. Night-time snacking is damaging to your teeth, especially if you also fail to brush your teeth because you are sleepy. The bacteria in your mouth will enjoy bedtime snacks just as much as you do. The problem is that you then wake up with a mouthful of bacteria and the acid they produce.

If you often go to bed dehydrated, you probably don't sleep very well, at least according to Sleepfoundation.org. Saliva regulates the bacteria in your mouth, keeping them to a minimum by killing them and washing them into your stomach. But if you go to bed dehydrated, you won't enough saliva to keep bacteria at bay while you sleep.

Have bad night-time habits jeopardized your oral health? Then call Runcorn Dental today. Come in for a dental examination and we'll identify and treat any existing oral health problems you might have. We'll also advise you on how you can keep your teeth and gums in tip-top condition.