Jaws

I have been grinding my teeth since I was born.  Probably ground my teeth in the womb.  I am one of those people who grind my teeth so loud I wake people up.  It is an obnoxious sound.  I have been known to wake myself up.  Before you ask, yes, I wear a night guard.  A very expensive, custom made night guard.

If I forget to wear my night guard, I wake up with a sore jaw.  I know I should wear it all the time when I sleep but sometimes I forget to put it in when I go to bed.  A few hours later my grinding wakes me up and I put it in.  I can even grind if I take a nap.  A few times I forgot to wear my night guard for a full night and I end up with a REALLY sore jaw for many days.  It gets hard to chew food.

Teeth grinding is called bruxism.  Bruxism is teeth grinding and clenching. 

When I was a kid I would sometimes sleep in my mom's bed.  She would wake me up every few minutes telling me that I was grinding my teeth.  As if I had any control over it.  Like I have any control over my dreams.  How can you tell someone to stop something that they do in their sleep?  They don't know they are doing it.  Especially something they have been doing since they were born!  Waking me up didn't stop the grinding it just made us both sleepy and grumpy (I was sleepy and she was grumpy!)

I have been grinding for so long I have ground down and cracked almost all my back teeth.  I have crowns on all my back teeth.  I have to get gold crowns because I grind so hard that I would crack the porcelain ones.  I tell Brenda that I have a fortune in teeth!

Sometimes I find myself clenching my teeth.  I try to be conscience of doing this during the day.  I clench and then I get a headache. 

I try very hard to remember and wear my night guard these days.  I know that not wearing it means wearing down my jaw bones and could mean bad stuff for the future.  It is really hard to replace jaw bones. 

Until tomorrow...