Clenching teeth?

[Catrin]

Several times this year I've woken up at 2am with HORRIBLE throbbing dental pain (upper left). For someone with a high tolerance for pain, I would put this at something like an 8.5 on a scale of 1-10. Each time my dentist came to the conclusion that since there wasn't anything wrong with my teeth that it had to be from sinus pressure.

I had this happen last night - it actually impacts that entire upper left of my mouth, all teeth, and indeed even touching one of the affected teeth, running my tongue over any of the teeth, or even drawing in a deep breath so that AIR touches that portion of my mouth causes increased pain. If I force myself to lay there and relax my jaw, the pain goes away after about 15 minutes, or at least relents enough that I get back to sleep. One or two of those teeth are typically still sore at breakfast, all signs of pain/discomfort gone by mid-morning and that, is that, until the next time. Thankfully it's only happened two other times this year, and my dentist can't find anything wrong.

I found myself clenching my jaws yesterday, and even had the though before bed that perhaps this might be the cause of it. Then, lo and behold, it happened last night - though not QUITE as bad as in the past. Only a 6-7 rather than an 8, but bad enough.

Has anyone experienced this? If you do sometimes clench your jaws, do you have symptoms like this? I've been though a few different types of stress lately so am wondering if this is actually what is going on. My sinuses seem fine... If this is the problem, it actually makes sense that it is only affecting one side - there are differences between the two.

[OakLeaf]

Ouch.

I do tend to brux - there are a lot of contributing factors. Stress is definitely in there, my weird bite is part of it, and a lot of it is also the muscles of the neck that interact with the chewing muscles. I'd be surprised if your neck injury didn't contribute to it. Maybe your dentist can refer you to a massage therapist who works inside the mouth. Or you can poke around the insides of your jaw muscles with your own index finger for trigger points, as my LMT taught me to do. It's pretty painful, but worth it.

[Catrin]

Ouch.

I do tend to brux - there are a lot of contributing factors. Stress is definitely in there, my weird bite is part of it, and a lot of it is also the muscles of the neck that interact with the chewing muscles. I'd be surprised if your neck injury didn't contribute to it. Maybe your dentist can refer you to a massage therapist who works inside the mouth. Or you can poke around the insides of your jaw muscles with your own index finger for trigger points, as my LMT taught me to do. It's pretty painful, but worth it.

hmmm, I didn't think about the neck injury. It is true that this never happened before the whiplash injury. My next dental appointment is in early January and I will ask her about this.
"brux"? I will look that up, and I do have a bad overbite.

[Melalvai]

I clench. I've had TMJ. What has worked for me is the night guard the dentist made, and more recently, osteopathic treatment was surprisingly effective.

[Catrin]

I clench. I've had TMJ. What has worked for me is the night guard the dentist made, and more recently, osteopathic treatment was surprisingly effective.

hmmmm, my PCP is an osteopath, I will see him in Jan when my flexible spending account kicks in for the new year. My insurance won't cover OMT, but it is very good to know that this was effective. I don't THINK I have TMJ, I don't have any of the common symptoms.

[indysteel]

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out TMJ (actually TMD is the better term). You do have one of the signs of it--teeth clinching--and you've experienced one of things that can cause it--whiplash.