I've always been somewhat of a mouth breather when I sleep. That is, when I'm not grinding and clinching. Anyway, as you may know, mouth breathing often leads to drooling. Yes, I 'm admitting on the World Wide Web that I drool on occasion. It happens.
When I got the MORA things changed a bit. Even with my lips together my teeth cannot completely close. As you may imagine, this causes me to drool. There's nothing quite like the rude awakening I get when I roll over and feel a spot of wetness on my cheek. Um... Ew. It can be worse than that but I won't go there. It's quite frustrating in the middle of the night but I don't really know what I can do about it. During the day I have a dry mouth and at night I drool. Hmm. Oh well. One of life's quandaries I suppose. Thought of the Day: "You drool when you sleep." -Rick Riordan, The Lighning Thief Um. Well. Yeah.
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I had a check-up with Dr. V on Thursday after work. It had been a month since my last check-up because with my weekly appointments I was doing very well.
The closer I got to Thursday's appointment, the more pain I was experiencing. I had a lot of ear pain and popping (like when you change elevations), jaw pain, headaches, and my carpal tunnel was getting worse again (I've discovered the two conditions are related). I thought about calling to get an earlier appointment but I got so busy it just didn't happen. I get called back for my appointment and Dr. V had me bite on the little films to check my progress. His comment when I pulled out my MORA was that I was way out of alignment. He had to do some pretty big adjustments to it. He said, "no wonder you're in pain." He told me the cause for the alignment issue is probably clenching and grinding during the night. I have no idea how to stop doing that. I have learned a technique from Stacy at TMJ Hope to stop clenching during the day - "Lips together, teeth apart" and tongue against the teeth as though making an N sound. So far this seems to be helping during the day as I try to say it to myself often. Now I just need to figure out how to say it to myself at night. A cd with subliminal messages, perhaps? After the adjustments, he told me he wanted to see me in a week. I am still experiencing the ear popping and pain along with some jaw pain. My wrists and hands still hurt but it's a little better than it was. Maybe I do need to be back on weekly appointments. I'm sad about the apparent set-back but I'm not worried about it. It is what it is and with Dr. V's help I can continue moving forward. Thought of the Day: "Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead." - Les Brown Precisely. I sometimes have trouble falling asleep. I can't remember how I discovered Andrew Johnson's meditation/relaxation apps, but I did. Perhaps I was doing a search on iTunes for apps to help me fall asleep. Mr. Johnson has well over a dozen apps on just about any topic - social phobia, quitting smoking, procrastination, losing weight, and deep sleep to name a few. I find these apps to be very effective and I absolutely love listening to them as I fall asleep each night (I rarely make it past the induction. I have quite a few of them and my current favorite is "Lose Weight". It could be the placebo effect or it could actually be working - either way I feel like it helps me want healthier foods and less junk. That's always a good thing. The newest one I bought is called Pain Relief. I've only listened once but it is quite calming and he talks about releasing discomfort. If nothing else, I hope it helps me relax my jaw because I am always so very tense. I highly recommend trying out one or more of the apps. You can do them during the day for meditation or at night to help you fall asleep. I know all of them are available for iPhone and at least some of them are available for Android. Click to visit: Mr. Johnson's website Mr. Johnson's Facebook Thought of the Day: "Relax. Change. Create." -Andrew Johnson |
Author I was officially diagnosed with TMJ Archives
January 2013
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