KBell, some of the advice given so far may work for minor cases of teeth grinding and for temporary relief however they will not cure teeth grinding permanently. For someone who might have a medical condition such as
bruxism (teeth grinding/clenching) or a closely associated disorder called TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) a serious treatment program will be in order. Since you mentioned you have been suffering from elementary school days you most likely have a full fledged case of TMJ and not just typical Bruxism. TMJ or more properly known as TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disorder) addresses a broad array of symptoms that may arise when the jaws, head and neck muscles, and teeth become unbalanced in relating to each other. Curing this will be a very long (and expensive) journey down the tunnel but there is light at the end of it.
Here's my story and I hope to help other's on these forums who have suffered from this disorder:
I had a stressful high school and even more stressful college years due to being somewhat unprepared to attend one of the toughest STEM schools in the nation. I think major stress and lack of sleep for almost 5 years caused these problems to appear (though I can't be certain). Starting around college and all the way into my late 20's I struggled with teeth grinding. I rarely had the typical symptoms associated with Bruxism such as sore jaw, popping noises in my ears, complaints from partners/friends (sleeping near me) of grinding, headaches, sleeping problems, and so on. The only typical symptom I was noticing was that my teeth were somewhat sensitive to hot/cold foods however I was managing that via use of special toothpaste (Sensodyne).
Besides the obvious medical problem TMJ was starting to seriously affect my self-confidence and my perception of myself as an attractive individual...i dreaded looking into the mirror at my smile and teeth. They looked almost like a smokers with bad hygiene however I did neither. After almost a decade of grinding most of the enamel on my teeth was destroyed and they had become small and mis-colored. I was seriously becoming worried that if I waited into my 50s that most of my teeth would be gone and i would have to get fake one's. Simple procedures like bleaching were out of the question as due to Bruxism it would have been too painful with all the sensitivity. It was affecting my confidence so much that I was all of a sudden mistaken for a very serious and surly individual by friends, family, and co-workers all because I rarely smiled. I was just too embarrassed to do so due to my horrible teeth. My dental hygiene was not to blame but this "disease" was.
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After seeing multiple dentists who all prescribed various orthodontics they all would say the same thing and that is that I could only slow down grinding and minimize the symptoms but that it would not disappear. I refused to believe this and searched high and low for a solution, to an extent where many other things in life (including socializing, women, friends) were of a secondary nature. One depressing night while talking in dental forums I somehow came across
LVI (Las Vegas Institute) which basically does post graduate teaching for dentists and is considered one of the best dental schools in the world on the cutting edge of technology. They were teaching courses to dentists on exactly the types of problems that i was having and were certifying dentists in these modern thearpy techniques. I came across a dentist in Washington, DC area who was highly recommended and had studied at LVI and specialized in not only cosmetic dentistry but in
restorative & neuromuscular dentistry. (note the last 2 words are very important, you don't just want an aesthetic fix, you want the dentist to get to the root of the problem and manage your symptoms and this disorder).
My goal was to reverse years of dental damage and neglect. By renewing structurally unsound teeth, and
properly positioning jaw joints and muscles, I was able to finally get a nice smile and perfectly shaped pearly-white teeth. I won't go into too many details suffice it to say that I was hooked up to just about every type of bio-electric equipment with dozens of sensors all over my face, neck, forehead and ear area measuring various types of jaw/mouth movements. Based on baseline recordings and then comparing them to readings that my dentist would expect from a normal individual he went through about 6 sessions of intensive electrical stimulation each lasting for around an hour. These sessions were 1 -2 times per month. Each time he would re-adjust the
K7 machine to either make the electrical current stronger or weaker, resulting in my jaw muscles moving at different intervals (the goal was to move my jaw muscles just enough where they almost touched the teeth but not quite...if the teeth touched, i.e., clicked then the current was too strong). Hundreds and hundreds of these reps would be performed in each session. Bite adjustments would be made and bite force measured. Over time my jaws were realigned into neutral positions and these positions were re-inforced through even more time spent hooked to the K7 machine.
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These sessions were slightly uncomfortable, as my jaw and facial muscles were twitching 100's of times. It is hard to imagine this type of therapy unless you have been through this before however easiest example I can give you is of Bruce Lee (though he did this for sport not therapy):
After about a year of visits and therapy according to my dentist my jaw and "resting bite" were finally re-aligned to normal levels. I was also given special mouthguard and told to monitor the impact of my teeth unto them to see if grinding was still occurring. After about a month or so of this when my dentist was sure that my jaw was realigned and clenching was not happening I was finally prepped for the big day, where reconstructive surgery would occur. Honestly this was one of the most uncomfortable days of my life, I had to lay in a dental chair for 8 hours while 2 dentists worked on restoring my teeth. It basically meant a lot of shaping of teeth , drilling them down, and then finally crowning most of them (note the crowning was a bit different from typical aesthetic dentistry as it is based on the "height" of my bite). Also, my dentist worked on adjusting the crowns to fit a more natural smile which he sad would self-restore over time as the facial muscles got used to me finally smiling on a consistent basis.
Not to brag too much but nowadays my teeth look so good that a gay guy recently hit on me at a tennis club just because of my smile. Women at work constantly ask me if they're real...of course I reply they are not wanting to get into details (even though damage was done and what was left of my original teeth all had to be properly crowned). Most importantly neither sensitivity nor grinding is an issue anymore though my dentist still recommends that I wear a custom mouth guard (just in case) at night which I religiously do.
In case anyone wants the name of my dentist or any more info on Bruxism & TMJ you can PM.
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