Clenching your teeth puts pressure on the muscles, tissues, and other structures around your jaw. The symptoms can cause temporomandibular joint problems (TMJ). Grinding can wear down your teeth. It can be noisy enough at night to bother sleeping partners. Symptoms of bruxism include: Anxiety, stress, and tension. Depression. Earache (partly because the structures of the temporomandibular joint are very close to the ear canal, and because you can feel pain in a different location than its source; this is called referred pain) Eating disorders. Headache.