Night time teeth grinding & jaw clenching- botox shots?

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I just had a treatment yesterday for night time teeth grinding/jaw clenching. That's been a problem for me for all my life, and my dentist says I'm going to lose the rest of my bottom teeth if I don't stop. So I had botox shots in the jaw muscles, which is supposed to cause the clenching to subside for 6 months. I won't know for a week or so if it will work, but I'll post up again with the results...

Just wondering if anyone else here has tried that?

Charles

I've never heard of that, but I have been taking nightly muscle relaxers for the same problem for some time. I'm looking forward to hearing of how your treatment works.

I haven't heard of that one yet. I used to have a splint/retainer to wear at night to prevent grinding.

So far, I can't really tell for sure, but I don't think my face and neck are as sore in the morning, as they often have been. And no ill effects from the injections (other than a few tiny red spots, which will go away in another day or so), so I'm hopeful that this might be a good move!

It's an extremely new treatment, and is still a bit experimental, and Botox is not yet officially approved by the FDA for this purpose. But it's safe & legal for any dentist to do it, as long as the patient signs that he/she understands it's "experimental". My dentist suggested it for me because he knows I don't care one way or the other about needles.

Here's a news article on it: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/2 ... -grinding/


Charles

I haven't had the treatment, but I have previously heard of it being used for that purpose (if my memory serves me correctly wasn't that singer charice given this treatment for the same or similar problem? Or was hers issue with her tmj?)

I am a chronic teeth grinder too. All my canines were ground flat. My bite didn't come together after surgery, I ended up with tmd/tmj, and grinding made it that much worse. My sister told me that when people grind their teeth, their body tries to compensate by adding additional bone growth that ends up jutting out out horizontally. Well, I had that type of bone growth in all four quadrants of my mouth, meaning that all parts of my mouth are getting grinding abuse.

My bil (who is also my dentist) made me an NTI device and when I remember to wear it, it does cut down on the grinding.

There are some things that are grinding triggers. Stress is one of them. Little did I know too, until later that stimulants are also triggers too. In my case I was on a pretty high doses of ADHD stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall when I was younger (not at the same time obviously) and that just made it much worse even though even just plain tea or coffee make me more likely to grind.

My younger sis just came to me the other day and commented that she doesn't know why she grinds her teeth a lot as of late. This woman guzzles energy drinks right and left though. Lol

I really hope your surgery works out well for you though