Teeth Grinding - Richmond,IN

Updated on January 21, 2012
D.K. asks from Richmond, IN
5 answers

For anyone on here that uses a mouth guard or any dentists on here, please give me some advice. I have made an appointment with my regular dentist, but unfortunately he is not available until next week. I have had some horror story dental experiences both in the States and here in Japan. I am living in Japan now, and finding a dentist who can speak English is not that easy to do. I wear a mouth guard at night for grinding my teeth. Most of my teeth are seriously ground down to the point that they are smooth and flat. My dentist has made two different mouth guards for me. One of them feels much better to wear than the other one. One of my back top molars has a large gold filling in it. Most of that tooth has been reconstructed, after having two different accidents. I had someone fall on me and knock me down in college, and later my son kicked me in the mouth during a temper tantrum over changing a dirty diaper when he was younger. This tooth seems to be the one that I bite down on the most while sleeping. On Wednesday morning, I noticed a crack in my mouth guard in the back where it covers that tooth. On Thursday, the crack had a piece missing. I had a very dry mouth and after coughing a little found part of the missing piece in my mouth. I apparently must have swallowed the rest of the part that was missing. So Thursday night, I decided to use my back up mouth guard. It is very thick, and didn't have any cracks in it at all when I put it in Thursday night. Friday morning, I woke up with a scratchy throat just on the side that has the reconstructed tooth. The mouth guard had a big chunk bit out of it. It is missing about the same depth as my front teeth surface area. I apparently swallowed that. The fact that I have swallowed plastic pieces three nights in a row is worrying me. Here is my question, would you wear either of these two mouth guards until the dentist appointment? My dentist told me before that it was ok to wear them temporarily if they had a crack, but some portion is sort of bitten away. Would it be better to skip wearing them until I can see the dentist? I really notice a difference if I don't wear the mouth guard at night. When I forget, I have terrible headaches and neck and jaw pain the next day. I asked my dentist what causes people to grind their teeth before, but he didn't really answer. I guess he had trouble communicating in English. I have noticed that whenever I go to a doctor or dentist here in Japan, the phrasing of the question is so important to get an answer other than,"I' m sorry. I don't know." What causes people to grind their teeth? Is this a question, I need to ask to a doctor rather than a dentist? If so, what kind of doctor will be able to answer that question. I would really like to stop grinding my teeth. My dentist is taking a vacation until next Friday when I have my appointment scheduled. Thanks in advance.

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So What Happened?

Thank you all for your responses. I decided to wear the one that wasn't cracked as badly until my appointment. There is a dentist on call, but he doesn't speak a word of English. My past experiences with dentists who couldn't speak English were so bad that I never want to even attempt to go to a dentist that doesn't understand English unless the problem is very obvious. If my tooth was already broken, I would go. I walked out of a dentist office in tears after getting the one broken tooth I had fixed. The guy rebuilt my tooth, and asked me if it felt ok. When I told him no, that it felt like it had a huge gap between that tooth and the one in front of it and it felt very sharp as well. He basically told me I was crazy, but when I complained, he agreed to fix it again. He rebuilt the tooth so that it had a big lump coming off the side into my cheek. Then he told me he made it match the tooth in front even though the shape wasn't natural to that tooth. This was a dentist who could speak English! That's when my husband did a huge search of English speaking dentists in our city and found my current dentist. This guy took one look at my mouth, and asked for the name of the dentist who did that. His English isn't perfect, but he did study dentistry at Harvard. He fixed my tooth and except for the grinding I haven't had any other problems. My dentist tried to rebuild my main mouth guard, but after a week of bad headaches and jaw pain, he decided to mold a new guard. I will get that one in two weeks. I did a search on TMJ and found a site that gave some exercises for jaw pain relief. I tried the first two and my jaw is feeling much better now. I had never heard of TMJ before, I will definitely keep that in mind if the pain gets worse. The dentist checked my jaw, but didn't seem too concerned. He offerered to give me some pain killers, but I declined. Pain killers usually just knock me out to the point that all I can do is sleep and nothing wakes me up until they wear off. Thanks again for all your great advice. I learned a lot. I wish that the over the counter ones were available here. That would be handy if/ when this happens next. I wish I could get a guard that was reinforced with wire. My guard was quite pricey. It cost about $80 dollars out of my own pocket. Japanese health care only requires 30% to be paid by the patient. That's something I do like about health care in Japan. That would put it at about half the cost of the wire one. But I would gladly pay more, if the pain stopped and my teeth are protected.

More Answers

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M.D.

answers from Columbus on

I work at the front desk in a dental office so, while I am not a trained professional, I certainly hear a lot from the dentist and clinical staff. Grinding is genetic and also stress related. So, even if not stressed there may be nothing you can do about still grinding. As someone else stated, if you don't wear your nightguard, you could crack the tooth...very true! I would get to your dentist or one on call as soon as possible. I suppose wearing anything is better than nothing at all. good luck!!

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M.J.

answers from Sacramento on

I wear a night guard, too, but just one I bought over-the-counter. I was told by my dentist as well as my doctor that it's stress-related when you grind your teeth as an adult. I clinch my teeth really hard when I sleep.

It's a tough call on what you should do. I wouldn't be too happy knowing I was swallowing plastic, but also wouldn't want to deal with the pain of not using the guard. Personally, I think I would choose to wear it anyway.

Can you get the over-the-counter night guards at the store there in Japan? That might be a good temporary solution for you. You boil them, which softens up the plastic, then put it in your mouth to custom fit it. It's worked well for me.

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

I wear a night guard that my dentist made for me. It is hard plastic resin and is reinforced with wire. I paid about $450 for it and it has been worth every penny.

if you can't wear one that you have, go buy a cheapee at the drug store that you get hot and mold for your teeth until you can get a quality one from the dentist. The OTC ones are not great but they are better then nothing at all.

I've been a teeth grinder for years and have work mouth guards off and on over 20 yrs. Sometimes it it is not as bad as others.. I gues it is my body's way of stress relieft but it sure does hurt when I wake up with the horrid headaches and neck cramps.

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L.F.

answers from Cleveland on

If possible, you might want to go to an orthodontist...it sounds like you might have TMJ (temperal mandible joint disorder)...which means that your jaw is out of whack. By gringing your teeeth is your body's way of tring to make it rght. I had this and chewed through 3 bite guards before my dentist convinced me to go for an eval. So at he age of 33

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V.M.

answers from Cleveland on

I would love to know what causes this too. I haven't yet gotten an answer from an English speaking dentist. So personally i think they don't know. IF it is stress i've found no difference between when i'm having the best week ever and when my dog died and my truck got stolen and my baby left me etc etc etc.

Something to explore when you do see a dentist, I was given an NTI no idea what that stands for. but it's a mouth guard that fits over about my front 4 teeth on the bottom and it's slanted the idea is that the top teeth touch this and spring back open due to the sloped surface. I haven't had great luck with it because i am such a super severe grinder but maybe it would be something for you to check inoto.

As to your question, I would break off any loose plastic and probably wear it more for comfort, unless you can get a do it yourselfer from the drug store.

Does your dentist not have a colleauge that covers emergencies??? because i would actually consider this to be an emergency because you might end up cracking that tooth.

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