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