*Report taken from official website of Opatija Coffeehouse Debates.
The previous predominantly theoretical presentations of young scientists in the field of social sciences and humanities continued in a slightly different tone with their last lecture as part of the Opatija Coffeehouse Debates project, a highly applicable topic in the field of natural and biomedical sciences. Namely, this Opatija project of popularization of science was hosted last Tuesday, April 24th Petra Tariba Knežević, postdoctoral researcher from the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka, who spoke to the gathered and highly motivated listeners about bruxism problem – teeth grinding which occurs in a significant number of people and can have extremely harmful consequences for their health.
Petra Tariba Specialist in dental prosthetics, and last year she defended her doctoral dissertation in the field of biomedical sciences at the Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka. Former student of Opatija high school (Declared a student of the generation), and otherwise from Ičići, she trained at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb and the University Hospital Center Zagreb. Her lecture as part of the project, according to the words of the engaged listeners, but also the organizers, is characterized as an excellent example of bringing a professional and relatively demanding topic closer to a less knowledgeable (but extremely interested) audience, This is also the basis for a good popularisation of science among citizens, especially young people.
dr.sc. Petra Tariba Knežević
Bruxism or teeth grinding is an increasingly widespread problem that It affects one in ten people and one in three children.. It is an unconscious movement of the jaw that creates friction between the teeth, and occurs as a reaction to stress, tension and anxiety. Since it most often occurs during sleep, a large number of cases of bruxism remain undetected until serious changes in the teeth occur due to their continuous wear and tear. Long-term bruxism often results in visible damage to the teeth who are looking for rather expensive treatments, which is why it is extremely important to detect bruxism at the earliest possible stage. Furthermore, since long-term grinding of teeth leads to their wear (by a few millimeters), the natural position of the jaw changes, thus straining the jaw joint and creating tension in the muscles, which can be the cause of frequent headaches and neck pain.
Traditionally, the lecture was followed by a long and quality discussion, where listeners were able to get answers to a number of questions related to bruxism, but also dentistry in general. Bruxism most often treated using special dentures made of solid plastic which restore the jaw joint to a natural position, as a result of which the muscles relax and thus prevent future teeth grinding. Even in cases where the denture does not remove the unconscious grinding of the teeth, it helps to prevent the occurrence of damage to the teeth during the night. However, the lecturer points out, the use of generic dentures made of soft plastic (most often purchased over the Internet) has a negative effect and only enhances bruxism, so for the correct treatment it is necessary to obtain a quality denture according to the instructions of the dentist. Alternative forms of treatment, significantly rarer in Croatia, are Botox use (poisons that create certain bacteria and prevent muscle contractions, so it can also prevent contractions that create teeth crunch) and Medications for tranquilizers (Recall, stress and tension are the main causes of bruxism). However, the situation is not so terrible, notes Petra Tariba, if we take into account that a considerable number of people stop grinding their teeth when they cease to be in stressful and tense situations, so the main danger is long-term bruxism, due to which there are changes in the jaw, which in turn intensify only teeth grinding so that the affected person will not stop squeaking even when he is no longer in stressful situations, since due to changes in the jaw joint there is constant muscle tension.
