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| apparently, and for a while now, i grind my teeth louder than elephants snore while sleeping. apparently it gets bad enough to where the wife rolls over and squeezes my cheeks until i stop...
I dont know im doing it ( obviously ) but for the past, eh week or so now....i have a very tight feeling in my jaw, kinda towards the back of my moelers .......
aside from the lion pose....any other things that may help with relaxing the tightness in my jaw? |
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| Most people start grinding their teeth because they're stressed out, anxious or suffer from pain in other parts of the body. So I would recommend that you take a moment and look at your life and state of health to see if there is anything there that can give you a clue.
However. Sometimes we start doing something for a reason, and then it sticks with you just out of habit. A friend of mine grinded her teeth because she had alot of emotionell issues to adress, but when that was taken care of she still grinded her teeth. She had to see a dentist that gave her a night guard, and that took care of the physical problem, so to speak.
But it's important to take care of the root of the problem first, and then take necassary actions to prevent the habit from continuing.
I hope that you'll find a solution soon.
Love,
Jenny |
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| thanks, it could be stress, but apparently i have been doing this for several years.....before the kids and the job and blah blah blah.....
but ill take some evaluation time perhaps and see if that helps |
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Location: London, England | Hi Sideshow,
The condition is called the temporomandibular (TMJ) joint syndrome-there's loads of stuff on the net about this, put that in a search and you should be presented with a whole load of facts.
Nick |
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| hrmmm....TMJ huh?
thats interesting, isnt there people out there that got these funny disc things inserted into their jaws that have fuzed their lower and upper jaws together? .....hrmm...i thought TMJ was different than teethgrinding...
thanks though man! |
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Location: London, England | Hi Sideshow,
The TMJ is acted upon by the masseter and temporalis muscles-they close the jaw, and grind your teeth to help you chew. When they get tight, then you get the teeth grinding. These muscles can be felt to contract if you clench your teeth.
Nick |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
 
| I just clenched, didn't grind, but I think I made it stop by deliberately clenching and releasing 5 or 10 times each night before bed. My daughter used to grind when she was 6 or 7 - I could hear it across the hall in the middle of the night. It went away when we took her off wheat for an entirely different reason. Never came back even when she went back on wheat. Coincidence? Who knows? How old are the kiddies now sideshow? (just curious  )
PS - you can get mouthguards fairly cheaply at a drugstore. Doesn't cure it but does help protect your teeth and your beloved's sleep  |
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| I thought I replied to this, cause like everything else, I do this too.
I not only clench my teeth, but I will also snap my teeth together. I have a few that are cracked. My sister does this too, she has a mouth guard but can not sleep with it in. I never got one, but went to the doctor for jaw pain and stiffness. Told the doctor that chewing gum relieved the pain. He said it relieved the pain and loosened my jaw because I was warming the muscles but as soon as they cooled down it would hurt worse. He said first to stop chewing gum. Second to pay attention I probably clench my teeth when I am angry or stressed while I am awake as well, just don't have anyone being woke up by it  That I needed to practice relaxing my jaw while I was awake, that I was forming this as a habit and it was carrying on into my sleep. Sometimes life would be good and no stress, but I would still do this in my sleep as a habit.
You do need to find out what is stressing you out and handling it in a way that doesn't hurt your body or wake up the neighbors. But the jaw clenching can be habitual without you realizing it. Sort of like lifting things improperly, can hurt really bad and you have to teach yourself how to pick things up properly.
Good luck, hope this helps. BTW I don't chew gum that often, but when I did it aggrivated it, so gum is out completely. Oh, do you have any wisdom teeth coming in? I chew differently when they are coming in and was trying to relieve the pain in my gums by chewing more towards the back, and this chewing pattern makes it bad too. |
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| I was told that I would grind my teeth at night resulting in TMJ problems. This was 24 years ago. I could hardly open my mouth. After working with my dentist without success, I went to a chiropractor who fixed the problem. Stress on the weaker side of the body pulled the muscles on that side. Also I was diagnosed with a curvature of the spine. The two are inter-related. Deep pressing on the area where the lower jaw meets the upper (TMJ) can give your relief. But general realignment of my spine worked for me. A neck injury such as whiplash in the past could also contribute to the TMJ problems. A good chiropractor is what I recommend. And of course, yoga. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Tiffany,
That's why chewing gum is one of my pet hates-plus, the jaw muscles are vital for body position sense, and the muscles of the tongue connect to the upper spine, which is one of the most vital areas of the body to have a good position sense of. When I'm world leader, gum will be banned
Nick |
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| LOL, I don't chew it very often, but when I started having the TMJ problems chewing seemed to relieve the pain. When I went to the doctor he asked if I grit my teeth in sleep and when I am a wake and he asked me if I was a gum chewer. Then he went on to explain why it relieved the pain.
Oh, gum isn't all bad. It was good when I quit smoking. There's something to ban, cigerettes.
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Location: London, England | Hi Tiffany,
Ok, cigarettes first, gum second Part of the problem with gum is that as the tongue and jaw muscles influence the position of the neck, and the neck then influences the muscular contractions down the spine, means that you are throwing all kinds of muscular contractions into the movement and posture equation that shouldn't be there. One of the great things about a well executed yoga programme is that it 'grooves' the best neurological output to achieve the best posture-this will not happen with a piece of gum in your mouth. The same goes for the activities of your daily life.
Nick |
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| So the commercial about walking and chewing gum is true  |
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| I have a mouth piece, like a boxer or a football player and I brush it every night before I put it in to sleep.
If you don't use something you'll have a lot of fine hair stress cracks in your molars and eventually loose your teeth.
Some jaws have more muscle than others and naturally clamp down.
Get a night guard, or something that fits, my dentist made me one.
I grind, but I don't want to loose my teeth.
SO GET A MOUTH GUARD, BECAUSE IT'S PROBABLY SOMETHING THAT IS HEREDITARY AND WILL NOT GO AWAY IN SPITE OF ALL THE RELAXATION IN THE WORLD
Edited by SCThornley 2007-03-09 9:06 AM
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Location: London, England | Hi,
There's all sorts of mouth exercises that are great for re-balancing the muscles around the TMJ. Of course, pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth is the best start, and then the other exercises added on. A good one is to put your elbows on a table and cup your chin in your hands, and then open and close your mouth. Each time your teeth meet, try to align them-you may find that when your mouth closes, the molars are misaligned-the exercise seeks to correct the muscle imbalance that cause the molar mis-match, and also strengthen the muscles that open the mouth-as these muscles are antagonistic to the ones that close your jaw and grind your teeth, the extra tone in these antagonists should help to relax the temporalis and masseter muscles.
Nick
Edited by Nick 2007-03-09 11:00 AM
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| You have bruxism, go to your dentist to get a night guard (mouth guard) and wear it every night...this will help you enormously - no more sore jaw, no more headaches...It worked for me.
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| My chiro helped me with this too. Apparently I clench my jaw when I sleep.. which would make sense- because my dreams are soo vivid. Anyhoo... my tight hips were a tie-in to my tight TMJ. With adjustments, not only did my jaw tightness go away, but some of my hip pain.. |
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New User
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| I understand this problem! I have battled with this my entire life! It truly is miserable and it can be scary at some points when you can not open your mouth at all! It started for me when I was 15 years old and back then the Doctors always told me that it was just in my mind and that it was growing pains.But after consulting Pembroke Pines braces,i got rid of my problem. |
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grinding teeth in sleepy...
