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hsapiens
hsapiens
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 22nd, 2007 04:00 am (UTC)
Wow -- I love my dentist even more now. The charges I paid cover the subsequent fittings, too. :| I always knew I loved my dentist, I guess I just didn't know how much.

Sounds as if you need something made out of rubber? But that might not be rigid enough? That really sucks. :( Makes sense to use the cheaper one, though, if they can't fit you properly. I'm not sure I really need an expensive appliance rather than a cheaper OTC type but I guess I'm going to find out. :|

Well, if it can retrain me, I'll be impressed. It has been a lifelong habit for me so it's ingrained.
nialla: Hurt[personal profile] nialla on February 22nd, 2007 04:17 am (UTC)
There's a huge difference between a dentist and a TMJ specialist, and specialists always cost more. But unfortunately, most general dentists don't know much about the treatment of TMJ beyond making a guard.

I really think meds play an important role in treatment and most dentists just treat in their area, if you'll pardon the pun, and not the whole syndrome. I'm not saying I'm pain free, but without my meds I wouldn't be able to function 90% of the time.

I posted about my full treatment in my LJ, so if you want the gory details, it's under the "health" tag starting back around last October. The primary treatment included getting four syringes worth of anesthetic injected into my scalp to "reboot" the occipital nerves and cut back on the pain. That might be incentive to use your block instead of ending up with full-blown TMJ like me. ;)