Teeth Grinding Nightmare

Grinding teeth at night, has been associated with "stress". Although this can be true, some people just grind their teeth naturally at night no matter what.

Personally, I was clenching my teeth, instead of grinding, but this is just as bad. I did not know this was going on, and my husband, a really sound sleeper, did not notice any noise.

I have been blessed with good teeth, but my first clue that something was wrong, was a small filling I had done years ago, kept falling out of my bottom molar. The dentist kept accusing me of chomping on seeds, nuts or cherry pits for this to happen. He explained that it takes a lot of power to loosen that filling, and it must be something I am chewing on.. I ate none of these things, and had no idea why this was happening.

I just kept getting it fixed at least once a year, until finally one morning I woke up to pain in my jaw, like I had been punched.

I looked in the mirror, and didn't see anything wrong, but when I went to have my morning tea, the pain was horrific! I went to the dentist, and he looked and couldn't really see anything wrong at first. This time the filling had not fallen out. But after an X-ray, it was determined that I had somehow managed to completely crush my tooth. That is how strong a jaw can be when clenching teeth. It took 2 hours to fix, and was borderline being taken out. That is when it was suggested that I was teeth grinding at night, or most likely teeth clenching, which now explained everything.

I invested in a "made for me" mouth guard for overnight, and at first, I had a hard time sleeping with this guard in my mouth, but after awhile I got used to it, and my jaw totally relaxed at night. I actually felt better for it the next morning. This was one of the best investments I had made in awhile. My jaw totally relaxed.

I am sure this had been going on for awhile, and had I not caught this teeth grinding at this stage, there would have been more crushed teeth to deal with at huge expense!

I mentioned to my doctor about teeth grinding, because I had so many well meaning friends that told me I was "thinking about stuff at night" or that I must be suffering from "severe stress", or "something is wrong" but you know what? I had none of the above, was happy with my spot in life, and found out that some people's bodies just do things at night. Some people twitch, I guess I clench my teeth. So, no need for meds, just a protective mouth guard to save my good teeth!