21 February 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Toothy Things  
The dentist decided yesterday that I have to get a night guard to stop me from clenching my jaw. Apparently if I don't stop I'm going to build up enough bone that they'll want to consider surgery to remove excess bone and that sounds positively painful and like something to be avoided at all costs.

Has anyone ever had one of these things? How annoying is it? Did it work? The mold-making led me to believe that this is going to be a very uncomfortable thing.

The dentist is never a *fun* visit but I schedule my cleanings for early afternoon and end up taking off the entire afternoon so it isn't bad. Yesterday's visit was no fun at all, though, because I was suffering from an allergy attack. Excuse me, I was suffering an adverse reaction*** to having walked past a seafood counter at the grocery store.

Today? I feel hungover, which is very annoying. I think being hungover should happen from exercising poor judgment while having fun rather than being stupid while walking past food.

***I have weird allergies adverse reactions. I am allergic to bizarre things: seafood, roses, and champagne -- but hey! I'm a cheap date!
 
 
Current Mood: lethargic
 
 
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Mish: Thor -- I survived Roswell[identity profile] hsapiens.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2007 07:28 pm (UTC)
Wow -- I could bite alignment corrections, too? That would be cool because my bite could use a little correction. (My cousin had far worse; they broke her jaw and reset it one year over C-mas.) OK - so this really is mostly a behavioral change tool and an added benefit of cushioning my teeth? That's cool. It's a default position for me to clench my jaw so I obviously need to learn a new behavior.

The fitting and grinding thing sounds awful. I always pitied those kids in school with braces, having to go have their bands tightened and having people mess with their mouths all the time.
[identity profile] greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com on February 22nd, 2007 12:41 am (UTC)
I had the braces thing as well, and the retooling of the bite splint is *nothing* next to the retightening of those bands and wires. Ugh!

They don't grind on the bite splint while it's in your mouth, in case I left you with that impression. You bite down on paper with colored wax on it and grind a bit to leave marks on the plastic mouth piece. Where it is hitting unevenly, the dentist will grind away until you are hitting evenly. That helps to align your bite a bit. It's not as drastic as braces, since it works more on your jaw than on your teeth, but it does help.

Mish: Thor -- I survived Roswell[identity profile] hsapiens.livejournal.com on February 22nd, 2007 03:47 am (UTC)
Oh - that doesn't sound too awful. I really don't like them coming at my mouth with a drill. :|