Have you looked into botox shots at all? When I tell you my life changed
completely from a 15 minute botox appointment with an oral surgeon I am not exaggerating in the least. I’d had no idea what it felt like to live without bruxism - not only were my teeth better but my neck stopped aching, my back muscles stopped spasming, and I stopped getting migraines entirely. I had gotten debilitating migraines once every month or two since I was a kid and had been taking pretty serious medicine to prevent and combat them for the better part of a decade. They stopped completely, cold turkey, after my first botox appointment. And I had no idea that was even a possible side effect(? benefit?) of the botox procedure at the time!
I’m sure I’ve written about it here before but it was wild how much the botox changed my quality of life to the point it was actually really upsetting to me at first. I had struggled for so long and I had to fight with insurance so much to get the botox covered (it was off-label at the time for TMJ, I think it’s approved now) and there had been a safe, simple, and highly effective solution that I sort of stumbled into out of sheer desperation, a lot of good luck, and a series of referrals on referrals on referrals.
Oh yeah, and much to my dentist & orthodontist’s delight, I stopped breaking my retainer in my sleep, stopped needing a mouth guard at night, and stopped needing special toothpaste for my sensitive teeth. But those improvements pale in comparison to the literal whole-body benefits.
I know it’s not going to be a magic bullet solution for everyone the way it was for me but the improvement was so night and day I have an almost compulsive need to bring it up whenever someone mentions they suffer from bruxism or migraines just in case it can put an end to their misery, too. So if you haven’t looked into it yet the potential upside makes it well worthwhile to bring it up with your doctor and/or dentist.
Or, if you happen to be in Massachusetts, give Dr. David Keith at MGH a call.