Bruxism "Bruxism is a repetitive jaw-muscle activity characterized by clenching or grinding of the teeth and/or by bracing or thrusting of the mandible. Bruxism has two distinct circadian manifestations: it can occur during sleep (indicated as sleep bruxism) or during wakefulness (indicated as awake bruxism)."All forms of bruxism entail forceful contact between the biting surfaces of the upper and lower teeth. In grinding and tapping this contact involves movement of the mandible and unpleasant sounds which can often awaken sleeping partners and even people asleep in adjacent rooms. Clenching (or clamping), on the other hand, involves inaudible, sustained, forceful tooth contact
Grinding (abrasive cutting) work in the machining fields, the term "cutting" is often understood to refer to the macroscopic cutting operations, and "grinding" is often mentally categorized as a "separate" process. This is why the terms are usually used separately in shop-floor practice. Lapping and sanding are subsets of grinding. Selecting which of the following grinding operations to be used is determined by the size, shape, features and the desired production rate. "Surface grinding" uses a rotating abrasive wheel to remove material, creating a flat surface. The tolerances that are normally achieved with grinding are ± for grinding a flat material and ±