Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Does anyone know of any research about the association of clenching or grinding teeth during the night and/or day and RLS? My dentist seems to think there is a relationship and my back teeth are showing signs of being clenched. I wear a night guard while sleeping, but need to start wearing one during the day now. I found one article that suggests dopamine agonists can help, yet I augmented severely on pramipexole last year and am not ready to try even a very low dose of it yet. Currently I am on oxycodone and oxycontin, with moderate control. Thanks for any help!
Bev

That's a new one on me, but I haven't looked too much into Bruxism since it isn't a problem that I have. I know that there can be a relationship between bruxism and some times of sleep apnea (specifically UARS), but I don't remember seeing anything about a correlation with RLS.

I have never seen or heard of one. A quick search resulted in the following:

https://www.mdedge.com/neurology/articl ... connection

There are multiple articles about this study. But it is a loose association. I know many of us here have migraines and I've heard of others with bruxism - I do have all three, as does my mother.

This next one suggests that bruxism does have characteristics of RLS, so they did a study to see if pramipexole would help. In the teeny, teeny study (n=13), pramipexole did not help bruxism. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ful ... /jsr.12440

Then, I found this doc who suggests a relationship to RLS/PLMS and bruxism to sleep disordered breathing. https://doctorstevenpark.com/rls

There were definitely some mischaracterizations about RLS in the podcast above - which sort of depressed me.

My takeaway? There might be some link, but none of what I found can prove it, nor does any of it get at how you'd make it better, that I could ascertain from a quick scan.

Thanks for all of your answers. They help - a little bit.
Bev

Bev, my neurologist believes that bruxism causes a fight-or-flight response during sleep which causes various sleep problems. As the person bites down, the head leans forward causing a pressure on the spine that signals the brain to fight-or-flight. He treats this first with OTC supplements that lower anxiety. If that doesn’t work, then he prescribes low doses of medications, Buspirone (anxiolytic) and Tizanadine (muscle relaxant). He recommends jaw loosening exercises that can be found on YouTube. I know this doesn’t answer your question but it’s related so maybe it could possibly help in some way.

brossman wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 21, 2020 2:31 am

Does anyone know of any research about the association of clenching or grinding teeth during the night and/or day and RLS? My dentist seems to think there is a relationship and my back teeth are showing signs of being clenched. I wear a night guard while sleeping, but need to start wearing one during the day now. I found one article that suggests dopamine agonists can help, yet I augmented severely on pramipexole last year and am not ready to try even a very low dose of it yet. Currently I am on oxycodone and oxycontin, with moderate control. Thanks for any help!
Bev

Start looking here if you are into research:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=e ... xism&btnG=

There 3.970 results so there is certainly some kind of link but until today they still argue if dopamine agonists / antagonists can be useful or even cause bruxism. From what I've seen, bruxism can have all kinds of different underlying causes, just like mood disorders for example.

Maybe there is some drug out there that would benefit your bruxism and your RLS?

I would be looking for a doctor who is an expert and sleep medicine who considers the bruxism when treating your RLS.