I am grinding and clenching teeth in sleep and it hurting like hell and breaking my teeth anyone else suffer with Bruxism any tips you can give me to try stop it. Been advised by dentist to get a custom mouth guard made, are they any good?

so had enough

Yes, I didn't realize how badly I was grinding my teeth until I got my first mouth guard and wore it down. I'm 6 months into my second custom-made mouth guard and am already making a dent. This one is made out of a harder material and my jaw actually hurts more when I wake up -- I think I'm probably clenching more lately because I hate my job.

I wear it religiously, every night. I shudder to think of what my teeth would look like if I didn't have it. (Mine fits on the top teeth, but I think you can get them for the bottom row instead.) It doesn't bother me at all.

Do you have medical or dental insurance? See if your dentist can write a letter of medical necessity for your insurance so that more of it will be covered. That's what my dentist did. The mouth guard may be expensive up front but my last one lasted 5+ years. And just think how expensive it would be to have all your cracked, ground-down teeth replaced.

.

[Edited 8/1/11 9:49am]

I have a mouth guard made for me. It's great! The one's designed for you work better, the over the counter ones are a harder plastic and fit like a football mouth guard-not comfortable.

I didn't grind them together but I used to clench my teeth in my sleep. During that time I used to periodically get really bad mouth pain where it felt like all my teeth were throbbing and pulsating, but I didn't realize the two were connected until much later.

I eventually broke the habit on my own and haven't had a problem with my teeth hurting in at least a year.

I have a custom mouth guard, but it makes me gag.

I have TMJ from having had my jaw broken, so I thought the pain and facial stiffness was from that, until my dentist saw evidence of grinding.

I seem to only grind my teeth when I'm stressed, tho.

kewlschool said:

I have a mouth guard made for me. It's great! The one's designed for you work better, the over the counter ones are a harder plastic and fit like a football mouth guard-not comfortable.

I have one too!

I also have a torus mandibularis although it looks nothing like all the gross photos I googled

I clench my jaw ALL the time without realising. At night it helps me sleep to have the guard in.

Yes. I have a tendency to get something in between my teeth.

Therefore it's saver for a man to sleep in a separate bed when staying over. It's just one of those bad habits I have

ZombieKitten said:

kewlschool said:

I have a mouth guard made for me. It's great! The one's designed for you work better, the over the counter ones are a harder plastic and fit like a football mouth guard-not comfortable.

I have one too!

I also have a torus mandibularis although it looks nothing like all the gross photos I googled

I clench my jaw ALL the time without realising. At night it helps me sleep to have the guard in.

We can grind are teeth together!!

Yes, I'm a grinder too and had a special one made by a periodontist. I like this one much better than the one I got a few years ago made by my dentist. This one is smaller and more comfortable, it doesn't cover so much of the roof of my mouth and doesn't go back as far. It's also doing a little bit of bite correction since my front bottom teeth were rubbing against the back of my top fronts. The worst part is that I thought I'd lost it after I'd had it for a year or so and had to pay another $300 for a new one, which didn't fit as well. Of course, a month or so later, I found the original hiding in my bedside table drawer which I thought I'd searched thoroughly.

Funny this comes up now; I had a dream the other night that I was talking to some guy and suddenly realized I still had it in my mouth and was talking funny! But I didn't know how to remove it gracefully...guess the dream bugged me enough that I woke up before the guy in the dream found out my secret.

[Edited 8/1/11 22:11pm]

Thanks everyone for the info. This time I fractured another tooth, got a tooth abscess, I was half way through Root canal treatment due to clenching again and ive irated it dentist had to open it back up and I'm back on antibiotics. I think I may as well try one the price is going to be £490. Better be worth it and work.

jone70 said:

Yes, I didn't realize how badly I was grinding my teeth until I got my first mouth guard and wore it down. I'm 6 months into my second custom-made mouth guard and am already making a dent. This one is made out of a harder material and my jaw actually hurts more when I wake up -- I think I'm probably clenching more lately because I hate my job.

I wear it religiously, every night. I shudder to think of what my teeth would look like if I didn't have it. (Mine fits on the top teeth, but I think you can get them for the bottom row instead.) It doesn't bother me at all.

Do you have medical or dental insurance? See if your dentist can write a letter of medical necessity for your insurance so that more of it will be covered. That's what my dentist did. The mouth guard may be expensive up front but my last one lasted 5+ years. And just think how expensive it would be to have all your cracked, ground-down teeth replaced.

.

[Edited 8/1/11 9:49am]

I am not sure what is causing me to clench and grind more, on a bad night I get pain most of the day. I do not have insurance I just pay as you go, suppose I could go down the HNS route but I am not sure if the allow mouth guards.

armpit said:

I didn't grind them together but I used to clench my teeth in my sleep. During that time I used to periodically get really bad mouth pain where it felt like all my teeth were throbbing and pulsating, but I didn't realize the two were connected until much later.

I eventually broke the habit on my own and haven't had a problem with my teeth hurting in at least a year.

That how my teeth feel how did you break the habit?

Serena said:

Yes, I'm a grinder too and had a special one made by a periodontist. I like this one much better than the one I got a few years ago made by my dentist. This one is smaller and more comfortable, it doesn't cover so much of the roof of my mouth and doesn't go back as far. It's also doing a little bit of bite correction since my front bottom teeth were rubbing against the back of my top fronts. The worst part is that I thought I'd lost it after I'd had it for a year or so and had to pay another $300 for a new one, which didn't fit as well. Of course, a month or so later, I found the original hiding in my bedside table drawer which I thought I'd searched thoroughly.

Funny this comes up now; I had a dream the other night that I was talking to some guy and suddenly realized I still had it in my mouth and was talking funny! But I didn't know how to remove it gracefully...guess the dream bugged me enough that I woke up before the guy in the dream found out my secret.

[Edited 8/1/11 22:11pm]

Must warn my old man that he if he wakes up next to me and I have it in that he's not having a nightmare.

I have another question...

How long when using does it take to feel the benefit, for the pain, grinding and clenching to stop when using a mouth guard?

YouOughtaUnderstand said:

TypoQueen said:

I have another question...

How long when using does it take to feel the benefit, for the pain, grinding and clenching to stop when using a mouth guard?

Until the dentist told me I was grinding my teeth, I didn't actually know/believe it; I didn't have any pain - at least not that was noticeable to me. I've worn a mouth guard for 6 years and I still clench my teeth; some mornings I'll wake up and it feels like my bottom teeth are "stuck" in the mouth guard from biting so hard. As I mentioned, lately, my jaw has also been sore so I think I must still be doing it. I can only imagine what kinds of problems I'd be having if I didn't have the mouth guard!

Since you don't have insurance, see if your dentist will accept a payment plan if it's too expensive for you to do at once. Not exactly sure what NHS is (National Health Service?), but if you go that route try to get a letter from your dentist saying that it is a medical necessity for you to have a mouth guard to stop the bruxism which causes radiating headaches or something like that; if it says "medical necessity" then maybe they'll cover it.

I didn't realize I was doing it either until my dentist asked because he could tell my teeth were becoming too 'flat' on the tops. I then had a massage therapist tell me it's because I was not saying things to people that I needed to say, which was/is SO true! So if you're one to hold things in, it might be beneficial to let that shit out (even though I still have a hard time doing that...).

To loosen the jaw muscles up you can massage them yourself and also open your mouth as wide as you can multiple times, straight down, then move it from side to side while open and also make little circular motions. I try to do that before I go to sleep and in the morning but don't always think about it unless it feels really tight.