Grinding Your Teeth

Happy Wednesday!  Today I want to talk a little bit about teeth grinding, which is something I am entirely guilty of doing.  I even have a lovely plastic retainer that I have to wear at night to keep me grinding my mouth apart.  I do not enjoy wearing this device at all, but when I don't I usually wake up with a headache, and my tiny teeth get all jagged and crooked (not that they aren't already, LOL). Self-deprecation aside, teeth grinding is actually pretty serious.  Not death serious, but chronic pain serious.

Headache? You may be grinding your teeth! 

If you're grinding your teeth at night, you're not only putting yourself at risk for reaching the nerves beneath the surface (super painful!), but you're also clenching your jaw.  What ends up happening is that your face and neck muscles ache really badly.  (They may even make clicking sounds, and bodily clicks are almost always a bad thing.)  Also, grinding your teeth is a sign that you have some sort of disruption in your airway.  If you're not breathing properly in the night, your tongue may fall back over your throat.  When you clench your facial muscles to move it out of the way of your throat, your teeth slide over each other, grinding each other apart.  This means that you're not only hurting yourself dentally but also depriving yourself of much-needed restful sleep.  Breathing, friends, is important.
So, my point in short: if you have symptoms of teeth grinding, do something about it before it's too late!  Visit your dentist and consider getting some sort of retainer.  It's no fun, but it's better than migraines and breathing difficulties.

<3 Frances