I’m quite annoyed right now.
I have this bite-guard that I paid quite a bit of money for my dentist to make for me so that I would not clench my teeth at night, and it is really uncomfortable, unpleasant, and difficult to put in, consequently, I don’t wear it with the frequency that I should. Ideally, I should use it nightly, but I simply cannot bring myself to…it feels like it is going to cause damage to the sides of my teeth every time I put it on and it completely creeps me out!
However, today I made a point to find my old retainers from when I got my braces off in highschool. I put them on, and miraculously, they still fit perfectly! My teeth haven’t shifted at all, which is highly satisfying to know, considering the three years of discomfort, inconvenience, and annoyance that braces were.
More to the point, my old retainers prevent me from clenching my teeth, also, and are infinitely more comfortable and easy to put on than that bite-guard was. So, I’m switching back to wearing my retainers at night.
I wish I didn’t clench my jaws at night, but the fact is that I do. I actually find that I often do while I am awake, but I catch myself doing that and make myself stop, but when I’m asleep, of course I have no idea what I am doing, and sometimes wake up with a cramp in my jaw muscles. No darn fun at all, plus it could eventually wreck my teeth. Yikes!
At least I have a workable solution now.
I have broken 3 of my back-most molars doing the jaw-clenching, and my dentist said he would not make me a night guard because I was just going to chew through it, so this is what he said I needed to do.
–Go through my social calendar and cancel half of the things listed (I was a social butterfly)
–Quit drinking so much booze & coffee (I quit drinking caffeine almost entirely; booze, not so much)
–Read a book before bed EVERY night (he said this focuses your concentration on other things, relaxes your brain) until you fall asleep
–Keep a list of things you think of that you have been meaning to do instead of trying to keep that list in your head
–Get more exercise, get on a sleep schedule and try to stick to it.
So I followed his list, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work. I haven’t broken a tooth since, and my TMJ is greatly diminished. So, there’s my free advice that I paid a $150 office visit for. I figure I’d share it, it’s worth a shot.
I already do pretty much all of that, yet still I clench.
So far the old retainers are helping, and maybe now that I have a job again, some of the stressing out will decrease.
So far I haven’t broken any teeth (knock on wood…sounds horrible) but I know I have worn down the enamel pretty badly in places.
Kera and I both have those things and neither of us wear them. They’re uncomfortable and actually seem to make me snore. Ugh! Good luck wiht yours.
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