Brief Answer:
There are several ways on physical ezam

Detailed Answer:
good question

the character of the painimplies a process. some are inflammatory and others with shock, numb, or temperature components imply nerve pain,,

the location implies a lot there can be joint muscle nerve bone etc

particular ways to trigger the pain like deep breathing or moving the joint or muscle imply the source of the pain

particular medications helping imply the cause also

I can go into more detail on any of these categories if needed

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Brief Answer:
First, on the pain,

Detailed Answer:
I cannot diagnose, prescribe or treat someone who I am not directly examining but can continue the pain discussion. Location in bends, that one side and not both sides, pain with movement, and of course visible swelling would imply a joint structure. There are several structures in a joint. The tendon attachments are quite dynamic structures, They get inflamed, they even tear, and they rapidly repair and go back to normal. They are composed of material that is similar in structure to scar tissue, so, scar formation in them doesn't mean anything, except irregular scarred tendons can make a rubbing noise of no significance. The tendons are OUTSIDe of a joint and do not represent a major injury in the very vast proportion of cases. Internal joint injuries are parts that have less repair potential, and are more important to the structural integrity of the joint. (the inside or the outside, yeah, that would cover it).

Sedative addiction can be fatal due to seizures when withdrawing from them. This is in the context of coming off of strong ones, taken for a long time, at high doses, continually. Just as 1 half filled glass of wine a night is not going to cause withdrawal (nor addiction, nor any complication at all and is likely to promote heart health rather than bad problems), the lowest dose of one of the milder sedatives that lasts only 4 hours, taken once a day is not likely to produce anything other than psychological addiction. The psychological addiction to sleeping pills is very common and paradoxical. Pills take about a half hour to start working. The length of time to go to sleep in people with "sleeping problems" averages about half that time (18 minutes). Sleeping pills can't work in most who are on them and most who are psychologically addicted to them. If someone were taking them multiple times a day, then that would be serious and probably needs close (inpatient monitoring) attention to safely come off of them. Otherwise sleep hygeine and just not taking them.

On addiction. The paradigm of addiction is..... interesting with a literature stretching back thousands of years. The critical features are a disparity between what one reasonably decides to do and what one actually does. The basis for why this occurs is that the STRIATUM (a railroad of neural connections integrating immediate brain input and immediate brain reaction) integrates a brain response without much input from the thinking parts of the brain (CORTEX).
I'm not sure there are even theoretically different ways to approach addiction other than:
Fighting it (never works)
Avoiding the cues/triggers/addicting thing
Substituting other things for it.
and Transcending it (having all the same everything. but putting it into a larger context). So.....with sedatives, using other sedatives with less addiction issues (benadryl or other anti-hisatamines or anti-depressants that have sedation) would be substituting. And better sleep hygiene would be the main way to transcend it (there are others).

With teeth grinding, the way to avoid it is a mouth guard or other similar modalities from a dentist. Substitution of other habits for the grinding is tricky and might have other problems.Substitution of putting the tongue between the teeth changes things but doesn't fix it. transcending it would be interesting. One technique is to have a mental imaginary dialog with the jaw and ask it what is going on with it.

This is an interesting paradigm of why fighting it doesn't work. The Jaw clenching is of course an automatic response to a perceived threat run by the striatum (to the Amygdala, then to the striatal-basal motor coordinating parts of the brain that are also involved with Parkinson's when they are damaged). More stress of course activates this area more. Worries about the grinding are more stress and activate this area more and cause more grinding.

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Brief Answer:
several points.

Detailed Answer:
5 mg zolpidem is the lowest usual dose. You say you use it once daily. Noise can be ameliorated by a constant background noise generator. A cool room is generally recommended for sleep.

A Mouth guard is a substitution. By definition, the underlying process is not affected but the danger from it is mitigated.

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Brief Answer:
affects on the brain would be quite a stretch.

Detailed Answer:
but wearing out the teeth is pretty guaranteed unless there is a guard against it. There can also be irritation of the nerve at the edge of the jaw. Mouth guards are often prescribed to prevent this.

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Brief Answer:
you are verywelcome

Detailed Answer:
and you can ask direct questions to me anytime.

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