I found this article today on CNN.com about bruxism, which is when you grind your teeth in your sleep. The article correctly identified that stress is the most common cause of bruxism, but then when on to say that, "There is no cure for bruxism, but... there is a way to stop the damage." Dr. Jane Puskas recommended a custom-made mouthpiece to be worn during sleep to protect the teeth. While this certainly is an option, I was soooooo disappointed that they didn't mention hypnosis as an option.
The point of the article was that stress greatly increases the severity of bruxism. Why not use hypnosis to better cope with the stress? Having the mouthguard will protect your teeth, but you're still going to be laying there grinding, and not sleeping as well because you're processing out your stress while trying to sleep!
I've had clients with bruxism, and while I don't ever feel comfortable using the word "cure" when it comes to hypnotism (doctors cure people, not hypnotists), I feel absolutely comfortable saying that I helped people vastly reduce the amount of grinding that was going on for them. They did not wake up in the morning with pain in their teeth and jaw anymore.
The National Institutes of Health continues to look into hypnosis as an option for many different conditions, and they list hypnosis as one of them for bruxism on their MedlinePlus site.
We all have to do a better job of taking care of ourselves in different areas of our lives, and stress is one of the most commone ones. Until we do, we'll continue to see conditions like bruxism having a negative effect on our health.
