To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Date sent: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 05:04:37 -0000
Subject: RE: Night time clenching
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

> > Happily, I can now sleep without the bite guard and without grinding.
> >
>
> Was it the physio, or was there something else that helped?

I went to a vetinary surgeon and got some horse sleeping tablets.
Sorry, joking, joking.

A little bit of a long story I'm afraid.

Well, as I currently understand it, I had been grinding my teeth for
years trying to swallow away some lumps which I could feel
blocking my left eustachian tube. Doctors kept telling me there was
nothing there, but they were looking from the outside, not the inside.
A happy side effect of some allergy treatment I received over a two
week period in southern Italy was that I literally coughed out the
lumps ( ughh ). They were lumps of a plaque-like substance -
basically calcified bacterial throat rubbish. The kind doctor in Italy
did not seem to understand the absolutely unbelievable relief that I
felt. I honestly never knew that swallowing, and even breathing, not
to mention singing was supposed to be so 'easy'. I am not
ashamed to say that I cried like a baby as I sang to myself during
my drive down to Sicily the next day.

Anyway, I had been grinding so hard for so long that my dentist
needed to re-align my jaw with a tough bite guard called a Michigan
Splint. He definitely did a very good job, because my jaw is now just
about 'working' correctly. ie, if you press your fingers just in front of
your ears on both sides where your jaw joint moves and slowly open
and close your jaw, you should get a nice smooth and even
movement on both sides. If one side is sort of snapping or moving
irregularly, it is fair indication that your jaw is out of alignment.

Well, ear cleared and jaw fixed, battle nearly over, but things were
still not quite right on my left side, and I really did not need much
tension in my daytime to start grinding at night again, so I followed a
friend's advice and had myself checked by a physio. Sure enough,
the left side of my neck was in complete knots of tension right up to
the top of my spine. It hurt like absolute hell having those joints
remobilised, but my neck is very definitely improving. The
phsyiotherapy is currently ongoing.

This story is already too long, so I'll just quickly add that I was also
very pleasantly surprised by the benefits I have felt recently from
accupunture.

Whatever the root cause of your grinding is, I really do hope you get
to figure it out. Long term usage of bite guards is not a comfortable
thought and in my experience should not really be necessary.

John