The Year of Grinding Teeth
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The Year of Grinding Teeth
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Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#2Something I never paid attention to is that the natural/ideal resting position of your jaw is that you teeth never touch, and your tongue is touching your upper palate just behind front teeth. I had issues with grinding teeth when younger. But at some point I adopted that position unconsciously.
This is a bit like resting breathing rate, the lower the better, but that's controlled completely unconsciously. Your lifestyle will influence it a lot though (exercise, relaxation, diet)
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#3Something I never paid attention to is that the natural/ideal resting position of your jaw is that you teeth never touch, and your tongue is touching your upper palate just behind front teeth. I had issues with grinding teeth when younger. But at some point I adopted that position unconsciously. This is a bit like resting breathing rate, the lower the better, but that's controlled completely unconsciously. Your lifes…
Curious if that tongue-palate trick would also reduce bruxism during stimulant use.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#4Something I never paid attention to is that the natural/ideal resting position of your jaw is that you teeth never touch, and your tongue is touching your upper palate just behind front teeth. I had issues with grinding teeth when younger. But at some point I adopted that position unconsciously. This is a bit like resting breathing rate, the lower the better, but that's controlled completely unconsciously. Your lifes…
I changed my resting tooth/jaw position recently, too, and it's made a big difference. I used to feel more stressed out in the mornings, and I was sure it was because of jaw clenching I would do at night which is now largely gone.
And this is going to sound weird, but I've taken it even further by buying some baby chew toys off Amazon and chewing on them for maybe an hour a day. The benefits I've seen since starting about six months ago are 1) less teeth stress/pain at night and in the morning, 2) less nasal pressure/stress (pretty sure I have more breathing capacity through my nose now), and 3) I feel my face has widened ever so slightly but that may be the jaw positioning alone.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#5Something I never paid attention to is that the natural/ideal resting position of your jaw is that you teeth never touch, and your tongue is touching your upper palate just behind front teeth. I had issues with grinding teeth when younger. But at some point I adopted that position unconsciously. This is a bit like resting breathing rate, the lower the better, but that's controlled completely unconsciously. Your lifes…
Curious if that tongue-palate trick would also reduce bruxism during stimulant use.
IME, yes. I tend to tap my teeth. Focusing on my tongue--pushing against my palette, keeping my teeth separated--helps.
Seemingly coincidental remedy, too. I don't remember reading anything about the proper resting position of the jaw. I just found that the one the helped the other. In fact, I was worried doing this with my tongue was a no-no, but figured it was better than the alternative.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#6I asked about bruxism last year and got extensive replies. This may be of use to someone reading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23665164
I did not solve mine, though it is signficiantly better managed. I got an improved night guard that isn’t causing jaw misalignment, did some physiotherapy of the jaw and exercises to improve masseter joint junction, and used the sleepguard bruxism monitor so I can see when I’m grinding.
The last one has become less useful as I’ve started knocking it off or turning it off in sleep, but it’s helpful to know bruxism is happening even if you think you have fixed it.
My new guard is a lower guard. I seem to grind more with it, but the upper guard was causing front tooth pain, so I think that may have interrupted grinding but been worse?
Anecdotally I grind more since no longer having a dog.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#7FWIW, I've used these [audio lessons](https://www.feldenkraisresources.com/Sensory-Motor-Education...) to cure my own bruxism. It also cleared up the problem for several friends.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#8We just started doing tests with couple dozen patients for my startup that provides multiple independent dental opinions. It turned out that 80% of people have bruxism.
Yes, we only had less than 20 people so far, so this statistic will likely change. But what was worrying is that they had no clue. Even despite having tooth wear in a very advanced stage.
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#9FWIW, I've used these [audio lessons]( https://www.feldenkraisresources.com/Sensory-Motor-Education... ) to cure my own bruxism. It also cleared up the problem for several friends.
Thanks. I have some questions. How long did it take you to complete the program? Do you still need to do exercises? Was the improvement gradual, or sudden? And did you suffer also from daytime bruxism (teeth clenching e.g. while working behind a computer)?
Re: The Year of Grinding Teeth
#10FYI there may be an association between bruxism and sleep apnea: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-apnea/link-between-sle...
I have both. I wear a very tough nightguard whenever I sleep. I tried a few 'comfort' guards but just ground through them. Finally my dentist got me a very hard plastic guard and it has lasted over 5 years.
I'm naturally tense and I don't think I'll fix my bruxism until I can stop worrying about how I'm going to afford alimony and my retirement. Modern problems I guess.