-ism, -ismus


Spasm of the eyelids causing rapid repetitive involuntary winking.
The doctrine that the world is good but not perfect.
1. Involuntarily or unconsciously clenching or grinding the teeth, typically during sleep.
2. The unconscious habit of grinding or gritting the teeth that occurs during sleep or in stressful situations and can lead to excessive wear of the teeth.
3. Bruxism is due to clenching of the teeth other than in chewing and is associated with forceful lateral or protrusive jaw movements. This results in the grinding or rubbing of the teeth together.

Bruxism usually occurs during sleep

Bruxers involuntarily gnash their teeth either during sleep, or unconsciously during waking hours. This stressful grinding of th teeth exerts thousands of pounds of pressure on the teeth surfaces and can severely damage the teeth, the gums, and the jawbones.

During bruxism episodes, there is no food to cushion the blows of the teeth colliding against each other. Bruxism, therefore, can upset the delicate pressure balance of teeth, wearing down the ridges of tooth enamel and loosening or moving teeth from their proper positions.

All of this grinding and clenching of teeth can cause facial muscles to ache or tighten up with sharp pain. This can lead to pain and clicking or cracking sounds in the joints of the jawbones and a severe headache.

Gum diseases may be aggravated by bruxism to the extent that the bone supporting the teeth is lost and they become loosened and fall out.



Within the TMJ there are moving parts that allow the upper jaw to close on the lower jaw. This joint is a typical sliding "ball and socket" which has a disc sandwiched between it.

The TMJ is used many hundreds of times a day in moving the jaw, biting and chewing, talking and yawning. It is one of the most frequently used of all the joints in the body.



—Based primarily on information from
"Gnash, Grind, Chomp" by Neil McAleer in The Body Almanac;
Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York; 1985, pages 175-176.
Bruxism is a leading cause of wealthy orthodontists.
cacophemism (s) (noun), cacophemisms (pl)
The substitution of an offensive term for one considered to be acceptable: When he was being particularly obnoxious, the stand up comic used frequent cacophemisms in his routine, insulting many who were in the audience.
capitalism (s) (noun), capitalisms (pl)
capriloquism (s) (noun), capriloquisms (pl)
1. Egophony, or increased resonance of voice sounds, in which the voice has a high-pitched bleating characteristic, like that of a goat: Also known as: bronchoegophony, egobronchophony, tragophonia, and tragophony.
2. Etymology: from Latin caper, "goat", + loquor, "to speak".
2. Prepubescent castration.
casualism (s) (noun) (usually no plural)
The belief or commitment to an understanding that all events occur unexpectedly or in an unplanned manner: "The doctrine of casualism does not work very well when anyone is trying to arrange a conference telephone call among several individuals."
1. Chemical activity.
2. A chemical property or relationship.
chemotropism (s) (noun), chemotropisms (pl)
1. The tendency of an organism or part of an organism to bend toward or away from a chemical stimulus.
2. An orientation response to a chemical stimulus.



The habit of inhaling chloroform for pleasure.