| To: VOCALIST <vocalist> Date sent: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 17:15:45 -0000 Subject: Re: Night time clenching Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
>From my own experience, there may be a little more to night time teeth clenching than first meets the eye.
I have been chomping away strongly on my left side for years due to a problem with my left ear/throat. Constant swallowing in a vain attempt to release the pressure in my left ear naturally led to grinding of my teeth.
I approached a new dentist a couple of years ago to ask whether I had a wisdom tooth problem ( I did not know that I was grinding at that time ). The dentist replied that I might have a wisdom tooth problem, but that it was more likely that my problem came from tooth grinding, and that was before he even looked in my mouth. He admitted that it was easy for him to jump to that kind of conclusion because he happens to be a tooth grinding expert, but the fact that I was actually grinding my teeth as I walked in to his office kind of supported his assumption.
Anyway, in my own experience I have every reason to believe that my dentist Paul Starrs is indeed very knowledgable about tooth grinding. He took very great care to make sure that the bite guard fitted absolutely correctly. When he told me that he trains other dentists in the correct way to fit a bite guard I was very inclined to believe him.
In recent months I have undergone physiotherapy for tension in my neck. Funnily enough, the physiotherapists keep getting me to tuck my chin in to exactly the position that Paul Starrs kept telling me my jaw should be.
So, in summary, my non-professional advice based on personal experience is that DIY bite-guards can really help if you have a minor biting problem, but if you have been biting hard for a long time, then I really believe that you should get your jaw in to the hands of a very experienced tooth grinding fix-it kind of person. It is not simply a case of keeping the upper teeth away from the lower teeth, but a case of also trying to re-align the jaw back to where it should be.
Happily, I can now sleep without the bite guard and without grinding.
John
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