night guard and or day splint?

by Peggy Olsen
(Monterey Ca)

I do not have any pain, but I am constantly flexing and grinding my jaw, especially during the day. I feel like there is something in the right rear preventing my teeth from seating correctly, however my dentist tried several times to find it and can't seem to. Would a TMJ expert be
able to help me more or should I just try the Smart Guard
at night first? I must be sleeping with my mouth open as
my mouth is constantly dry.

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Jun 24, 2013
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TMJ Expert and Day grinding
by: Dr. Spainhower

Hello Peggy,

I don't have enough information to give a good idea of what is going on.

As far as seeing a TMJ Expert...TMJ experts are trained differently with different focuses.

Many TMJ experts now days are trained to treat Airway problems. They treat TMJ problems by improving your airway at night.

Some pull your jaw forward but that is needed in only a smaller percentage of TMJ patients.

Some like myself are trained in Centric Relation and how to eliminate interferences in the teeth, but only about 20% of TMJ sufferers really need something like that.

You very well may fall into that 20% of having interferences that is causing problems.

So, to answer your question is a difficult one.

One thing you can do is to wear the SmartGuard (www.MyTMJDentist.com). Then if you wake up in the morning with only one/two teeth contacting, then that can be a sign that your bite is off.

The SmartGuard relaxes muscles so well that it can reveal a bad bite. The jaw actually moves as the muscles relax and then that reveals bad bites.

Then you might pursue bite correction the Centric Relation way.

Many other questions needs exploring to diagnose any other causes of your discomforts during the day. It might be medication, it might be airway, it might be a bad bite.

Email me at TMJ Spainhower at G mail dot com. and I'll help you as much as I can through email.

Sincerely,

Dr. Spainhower

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