It's the grind

What's the deal with teeth grinding and why do so many of us do it?

Teeth grinding has taken a prominent seat at the table in my life and, though it affects so many of us, its been one of the more confusing issues to get solid advice on. From wayward dentists and night guard shopping, to grinding’s physical and aesthetic effects, to why the heck would we grind our teeth anyways? Let’s take a bite out of this frustrating issue.

My teeth grinding started as a casual observation and an equally casual assessment– my dentist saying I could try out a night guard if I wanted to, but that it wasn’t urgent and he didn’t feel I needed a custom dentist-made guard. I got a boil and bite cheapie from Amazon and hated it, but since my dentist had packed so much chill about the whole issue I decided I’d move forward in life sans night guard. Fast forward to my check up the next year– my dentist found two abfractions. Abfractions are when small amounts of enamel wear off at the gum line, due to the stress of grinding your teeth together. I still find this rather bizarre (if enamel is going to wear away, wouldn’t it be at the bottom?) but moreso upsetting because now I have these slight cosmetic imperfections that could have been avoided had my dentist packed the correct level of caution when I first asked about this. I was living in Jackson Hole at the time and feel this interaction kinds of describes all of life in Jackson, though– chillness and freedom but which bear a price. Even after IDing the abfractions this dentist still didn’t recommend a dentist-made guard, so I rolled the dice on one from the internet which still didn’t do the job and kind of left me wanting to chew/bite down more? Because it was soft on the inside, like a chew toy. (If you’re wondering, the internet brand was Remi and I wouldn’t recommend them).

Now in Boulder I just asked a fresh dentist about grinding and night guards and she was of basically no help either. She didn’t believe me that my current guard was shitty and we got into a combative exchange where she insisted that even if she made a custom one, it wouldn’t really be any better. Granted guards direct from the dentist can run like $500 so I appreciate her wanting to spare me the expense– it just was pretty weird and unhelpful and left me back at square one. But I guess something that both upsets me and is also a point of pride is the way I can always take matters into my own hands– so I decided if dentists weren’t going to help me find the answers about teeth grinding/night guards, I would just become an expert myself.

First I researched every internet night guard option available and compared them all based on quality, price, comfort, and if the raw materials used were clean (the last of these was the hardest to research). But I finally landed on one that is all hard materials (nothing soft to encourage my chew toy tendencies), not obscenely thick, and could back up the health of the raw materials used (they source from the EU which has higher safety requirements than the US… this is a whole different blog topic, lol). The price came in at under $200 bucks too and their customer service was great. If anyone is interested, I’d say go for it with Chomper Labs.

As far as how to prevent grinding from happening– I don’t really know at this point. My latest dentist recommended heat before bed which felt dismissively simple– like how I’ve had doctors tell me to just pop Aleve for my back pain. To be fair, I haven’t tried heat before bed religiously. What I’m more into because it makes sense both from a muscular and an aesthetic perspective is gua sha. I like the idea of the manual release gua sha provides, and also I don’t want intense frown lines from all the tension in that part of my face (I’m just trying to survive most of the time and I don’t need to worry about deep jowl grooves, ya feel me?) This is my gua sha lady and the video I follow. I want to take more of her courses too– she has courses for both jaw pain and nasolabes (aka frown lines, jowls).

Lastly let’s address the million dollar question– why do so many of us grind in the first place? This hits me with the same discomfort as why does autoimmune disease exist? With both autoimmune disease and teeth grinding being self destructive/self abusive patterns. It’s dark thinking about these tendencies. For now I’ll just say that there seems to be a STRONG correlation between keeping emotions locked inside and that yielding an element of distress and harm to the body. If we try to mask our feelings and uphold an easy breezy/happy/good girl demeanor to the world, our body is like what the fuck? What am I supposed to do with this rage I’m not allowed to express? I guess I’ll just attack myself instead. I think its basically the same for teeth grinding. We’re like I’m upset! I have things to say! I have a voice but no one is listening to it! And the impact of that is our body resorts to grinding out the energy of the day while we sleep. Because we have to consider the location of teeth grinding, right? Its the mouth, the vessel from which we’re supposed to share our truth.

I’ll end with a question from Jackson dentist. He’d asked me “are you stressed?” as if I might answer “oh, now that you mention it I am stressed, but I will just stop being stressed”. I think having the consciousness towards probable root cause of grinding and being able to snap your fingers and change the behavior are two different things. So this is basically a “well, what now?” type of post and an intention to share what I’ve learned about teeth grinding (and all that I still don’t know about how to solve it). But let’s imagine that if we’re grinders, maybe we’re in good company? Because maybe it means that’s we’re slowly waking up to our own voice and volition.

---

Healing However

Random things I’m into in the human plane

1. Rent The Runway: I don’t really have the closet space or budget to shop atm but with the first month of a RTR subscription coming in at only $45, I’m delighted to be trying this out for an upcoming trip.

2. The new Mumford & Sons album: The boys are back! Tell me your brain doesn’t go to a magical place during the guitar/jam riff on “Truth”.

3. Lord! My Hands Are So Dry! lotion: I bought this hippie hand lotion for the fun name, love it because it smells delightful, is cheaper than the bougie brands I was trying, and it actually works.