Teeth grinding and botox

[badger]

Apparently I have excessive bruxism (teeth grinding), and even with a grinding guard I managed to break one of my teeth on Saturday. My dentist recommends botox to relax my jaw muscles.

It scares me, it's a toxin!!

Has anyone had any experience with botox? or excessive grinding that they found a remedy for?

[Cataboo]

You could try valerian or valerian tea. It's sort of a natural muscle relaxant.

A friend of mine's dentist suggested she try it, and I told my sister, who also grinds her teeth. She says a cup of the tea every night, it relaxes her, she gets to sleep easily & doesn't grind her teeth.


As for botox - I've had friends and family members who got it for various medical reasons - nothing to be scared about. It does wear off & you've got to get another shot though.

[OakLeaf]

There is a remedy, but like most things of the body, it takes a lot of work. So far I haven't been willing to put the work in to make it permanent.

You have to retrain the muscles. There are neuromuscular massage therapists who will work inside the mouth and teach you self-massage techniques (you can do pretty much all of it yourself once you know how). If you have dental insurance and your dentist prescribes the massage therapy, it should be covered. The shoulder and chest muscles are also all connected. You have to retrain how you sleep, how you sit during the daytime, how you hold your shoulders and jaw when you're not doing anything else and when you are doing other things.

I also had some success with a custom appliance. Frequent adjustments were critical to that thing working. Eventually I started seeing another dentist for reasons unrelated, so I had to quit wearing the appliance (wearing it unadjusted was WORSE for my jaw than not wearing it at all). If your bite is off, that really contributes to bruxism (your muscles are trying to align your teeth); the appliance substitutes its surface for that of your teeth, so if it's properly adjusted and aligned, your muscles will relax.

Good luck.

[tulip]

I used to grind my teeth terribly and cracked one of them. A night guard helped, but I decided to get to the reasons WHY I was grinding in the first place. In my case--and maybe or maybe not yours--it had to do with alot of stress and anxiety. I began to sort through alot of things with help of a counselor, and eventually I stopped grinding my teeth. It took alot of work, much of it not much fun, and a couple of years, but it worked. In my case, it also had alot of other benefits.

Best of luck. Grinding teeth really is not fun at all.

[ny biker]

I've been grinding my teeth for decades. I've tried two different mouth guards and neither has worked. I just bite down on them really hard, which makes my front teeth hurt.

I also used to slide my lower jaw to the left while I was grinding. As a result, most of the damage has been to teeth on the upper left. I would also get a popping in my left jaw.

I stopped wearing a night guard a few months ago, after someone at the dentist's office relined it but it wasn't done right and it caused too much pain to wear it. Since then I've found that I'm grinding my teeth less than I did while wearing the night guard. It mostly seems to happen when I'm sleeping on my back, but not when I'm on my side. I've also stopped sliding my jaw to the left, because doing it was causing a crown on the upper left to hurt alot, which would wake me up, so I think through operant conditioning I finally stopped the sliding.

I also have problems with shoulder and neck pain. I go through life with hunched shoulders. Recently I've been trying to pay more attention to that and remind myself frequently to relax them.

I know someone who recently got invisalign braces to stop him from grinding his teeth. His dentist said that alignment problems were the cause in his case.

[wnyrider]

What about the mouth appliance that came out for sleep apnea? It positions the lower jaw forward.

[Biciclista]

You have to retrain the muscles. There are neuromuscular massage therapists who will work inside the mouth and teach you self-massage techniques (you can do pretty much all of it yourself once you know how). If you have dental insurance and your dentist prescribes the massage therapy, it should be covered. The shoulder and chest muscles are also all connected. You have to retrain how you sleep, how you sit during the daytime, how you hold your shoulders and jaw when you're not doing anything else and when you are doing other things.


Good luck.

Who can teach you how to sleep?? I want to know! most of my neck problems are caused by how i sleep!??!.

[OakLeaf]

The stars aligned... reading this thread this morning, and going for a massage for some nasty shoulder impingement this afternoon. My massage therapist did a considerable amount of work on my neck and she's going to do some intraoral work next time. And after that I promise to be more diligent about doing it for myself!

A massage therapist, physical therapist, chiropractor or dentist should be able to give you some tips about pillows, mattresses and how to align your body when you sleep...

[polly4711]

I need this help too!!!! I've ground my teeth for as long as I've had them.

Mouth Gards dont work... (it doesn't help that I am an active sleeper)

i want to hear more about this tea.... and what you find out!!!

[Cataboo]

Okay, NIH website on valerian:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/valerian.asp

wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_(herb)

[shootingstar]

Who can teach you how to sleep?? I want to know! most of my neck problems are caused by how i sleep!??!.

I know that I must sleep on 1 flattish pillow. It can't be a thick pillow otherwise I will end up with a sore neck. I've always been like this.

So in hotels, my head often ends up on the mattress..and there are 2 wasted fluffy pillows, cause of their practice to place 2 pillows on top of one another when they make up the bed.

[OakLeaf]

In hotels, I just take a towel, fold it in thirds (or half if it's an expensive hotel with thick towels ), roll it up tightly, and put it under my neck.

[badger]

I figured that my excessive teeth grinding isn't just one thing but part of a slew of other things (btw, I'm onto my 3rd grinding guard, the other two I basically wore them out). One of my friends is a dentist and he long ago suggested I see a counselor regarding my grinding. I never did... Anxiety's my middle name, I've had panic/anxiety disorder since my teens.

I have chronic neck/shoulder problems which gives me frequent headaches along with the occasional migraines. My C1 (first vertebra just under the skull) is twisted 7degrees. The chiropractor thinks I was a foreceps delivery (my mother doesn't remember!!)

I think a lightbulb just went off, where I think all these things are actually *because* of the twisting of my C1. The alignment of everything from my head down is basically off (I also have scoliosis). Hell, I'll even throw in my panic/anxiety as a result of this.

Hmm.... unfortunately there's nothing that can bring my C1 back into its normal position as all the ligaments around it have stretched.

Valerian's pretty good, I picked up these nice little Kalms pills in England, and turns out we get them here in Canada, too. They have Velerian, Gentian and Hops.

I'll check out this neuromuscular massage therapist. I found my cranial-sacral massage therapist does wonders, too, but she's hella expensive (even with 80% coverage it's still a big chunk).

[badger]

I've also recently purchased a new natural latex mattress (lovely). My chiorpractor told me that most people make the mistake of sleeping on too-thin pillows which puts a lot of stress on your shoulder if you're a side sleeper, such as myself. An inch above neutral position is better than an inch below.

[Ana]

I grind my teeth sometimes--usually during times of extreme stress in my life. The pain the day following a night of jaw clenching and teeth grinding is just unbearable for me. It hurts to eat, to turn your head (if your neck also hurts, which was a common symptom accompanying my jaw soreness).

I do have a mouth-guard type appliance that was designed to move one of my teeth but also serves to ease my grinding. It was made from a mold of my teeth and it clamps onto my teeth so I cannot dislodge it without using my hands. I only have one for the bottom row of teeth, though. I just talked with my dentist during my regular cleaning appointment and he said that it would be more effective if the top of my existing appliance was flat, instead of grooved, so that my top teeth could slide across it freely.

I do not grind my teeth very often any more but I did discover the following things that exacerbate the problem:

1. Stressful events
2. Chewing gum--I cannot chew it, ever
3. Clenching my jaw during my active day--I believe this just trains your body to respond to stress

I think seeing a therapist about your anxiety could help reduce your stress. Since you say you have anxiety problems, you might want to consider some personal adjustments that may help ease the stress of your anxiety (good things to talk about with your therapist).

Do you do any kind of yoga or pilates? I know many of my friends enjoy those kinds of classes. I have begun taking martial arts and it helps focus my energy

I have to say, botox seems a bit extreme... I stay away from endocrine disruptors (e.g. bisphenol-a) which are milder than an injected toxin...

I hope this helps.