Metal Mouth Message Board

Hey everyone...

I have been braced for 2 weeks (tomorrow) and have noticed this weird bite thing going on. I notice out of nowhere when I have my jaw relaxed it will close shut involuntarily. Sometimes I even bite my tongue in the process.

Am I going nuts? Has anyone heard of this?

Crystal

p.s. - my ortho office just set up this cool website where I can get my record photos so when I get them together along with my braced photos I will post (I know I have been saying this - but I am working on it)

Yes... "snaps shut" would be the perfect way to describe this!
I am relieved to hear that I am not the only one. I am definitely going to mention this to my ortho on my next visit but that's not for 3 weeks (and from working in a doctors office most of my life, this isn't an emergency - lol)

I had that in the first weeks when my braces went on. I decided it was because there was no comfortable position for my teeth to rest together so I was tensing up to hold them slightly apart. And if I lost concentration my jaw snapped shut. Then my teeth shifted a bit so I could close them and it stopped happening.

In the first few weeks that I had my braces, that would happen to me in my sleep (I assume). I would wake up with the vague awareness of just having bitten down really hard on one tooth or another and have to feel to make sure that my teeth were all still in my mouth and not broken. Really freaked me out, but it stopped eventually.

I find that now that I wear elastics, I'll wake up in the middle of the night because I've bitten my tongue. And yes, it's sometimes as if I'm clenching and biting down. I just sort of wiggle my jaw around and fall back asleep. Also, I've had dreams/nightmares about teeth.......lol. No better place to share this information than on this site.