Night Grinding Wore the Lower Teeth Down to the Gums: A CBD Belapur Case Study

The case: lower teeth ground down to the gumline

The photo above is how this patient looked when they first sat in our chair in CBD Belapur. Look at the lower front teeth. They are barely there. Years of grinding at night had flattened them until only short, yellow stubs were left sitting at the gumline.

Below those stubs you can see two small swellings on the gum, like pimples. Those are gum boils, and they were the part that worried us most. A gum boil is almost never a gum problem. It is a sign of infection coming from inside a tooth.

The upper teeth were worn too, but much less. The patient wanted the lower jaw fixed and was clear from the start that they did not want any work done on the upper teeth. We will come back to that decision, because it was a good one to talk through.

How night grinding wears teeth down

Grinding at night (dentists call it bruxism) happens while you are asleep, so you cannot feel yourself doing it. Grinding is the one habit you can never catch yourself at. The person sleeping next to you, on the other hand, has probably heard every bit of it.

Every night, the upper and lower teeth slide against each other under far more pressure than normal chewing. The lower front teeth often take the worst of it, because they rub against the inside edges of the upper ones. Enamel, the hard outer layer, goes first. Once it is gone, the softer yellow dentine underneath wears much faster.

Keep going long enough and the tooth gets so short that the nerve inside sits right under the surface. That is how a grinding problem turns into an infection problem. If you want to read more about the habit itself, the Cleveland Clinic guide to teeth grinding covers causes and symptoms well. Our own guide to night guards for teeth grinding explains the signs to look for.

What the gum boils on the lower teeth meant

When a tooth is worn this far, bacteria can reach the nerve. The nerve dies, infection builds up at the tip of the root, and the body pushes it out through the gum. The gum boil is that exit point. It can stay for months, and because it often does not hurt, people tend to ignore it.

A painless gum boil is still an active infection. Antibiotics may calm it for a while, but they cannot reach inside a dead tooth, so it comes back. The fix is to clean out the infection from inside the tooth itself. Our post on tooth abscess in CBD Belapur explains why antibiotics alone are not enough.

This is where it helps that Dr. Wendy Lobo is a specialist endodontist. Saving infected teeth with root canal treatment is the work she does every day, and it meant the patient could keep their own roots instead of losing teeth.

How the lower jaw was rebuilt

Yes, 'root canals and crowns across the lower jaw' sounds like a lot. It is done in stages, and each step is explained before it starts. Here is how the work was ordered.

Step by step

• Examination and X-rays to find out which teeth were infected and how much tooth structure was left above the gum.
• Root canal treatment on the infected teeth. The infection was cleaned out, and the canals were shaped and sealed so the gum boils could heal.
• The worn lower teeth were prepared and measured so crowns (caps) could restore their lost height and shape.
• The crown shade was chosen to sit naturally next to the upper teeth the patient was keeping, rather than a bright white that would stand out.
• The crowns were checked for fit and bite, then cemented, so the upper and lower teeth met evenly again.

The result: a rebuilt lower jaw, and the gum boils gone

Here is the lower jaw after treatment. The lower teeth are back to a proper height, the bite meets the upper teeth again, and the two gum boils have healed. The colour matches the upper teeth, so the lower crowns do not look like a separate set.

Why we did not touch the upper jaw

The patient did not want their upper teeth rehabilitated, and we respected that. Their upper teeth were worn, but they were working, they were not infected, and they were not causing pain. That is exactly the situation where conservation-first dentistry says: leave them alone.

Shaping a tooth for a crown cannot be undone. If a tooth is still doing its job, covering it just to make the whole mouth match is a big step to take. Treating one jaw now and keeping an eye on the other is a perfectly reasonable plan, and the upper teeth can always be treated later if they need it.

There is one honest trade-off to know about. Crowns do not stop you grinding. If the habit carries on, the upper teeth will keep wearing, and the new lower crowns will be under strain too. That is why the next section matters.

Protecting the new crowns from the same grinding

After a rebuild like this, a custom night guard is usually the most sensible next step. It is a thin, hard plastic cover worn over your teeth while you sleep, so the guard takes the wear instead of your teeth or crowns. A custom night guard in CBD Belapur starts from ₹3,000. Exact pricing depends on the case, and you get a quote at the consultation.

Regular checkups matter too. They let us spot fresh wear on the upper teeth early, while a small fix is still possible. If you also wake up with an aching jaw or clicking, read our guide to jaw pain and TMJ in CBD Belapur, because grinding and jaw pain often go together.

When you probably do not need a rebuild like this

Most people who grind their teeth will never need what this patient needed. If your teeth look slightly flatter at the edges, or one edge feels a little sharp, that is early wear. A night guard and a check every six months is usually enough at that stage. No crowns, no root canals.

If your teeth look worn but you also drink a lot of fizzy drinks or live with acidity, the cause may be acid rather than grinding, or both. Our tooth erosion case study shows what that looks like. The treatment plan is different, so it is worth getting the cause right first.

What you should not do is ignore a bump on your gum. That one needs a proper look, even if it does not hurt.

Treating teeth grinding damage at Dr. Wendy's Dental Clinic, CBD Belapur

Dr. Wendy's Dental Clinic is at Shop No 33, Sector-1 Shopping Complex, Police Line, Sector 1, CBD Belapur, a short walk from Belapur railway station. Patients come from CBD Belapur, Kharghar, Nerul and Seawoods. The clinic has 200+ Google reviews at 5.0 stars, and 342+ reviews across platforms.

There is no single price for a case like this, because it depends on how many teeth need root canals and how many need crowns. You will get a clear plan and quote at the consultation, and you decide how much to do and when. To read more about the treatment that saved these teeth, see root canal treatment in Belapur, and for crown options, our dental crown guide.