Chewing only on one side

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#1 Post by **sweetpea** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:31 pm

I wonder whether anyone else has had an experience like mine?

As long as I can remember (and certainly years before my condylar hyperplasia was noticed) I've only ever chewed on the left side.

Because my surgery will be in October, I thought I'd see what it was like to chew on the right (as I hope I will comfortably be able to do when my teeth meet more closely). But to my horror, I found I couldn't taste the food on the right.

Do you think I'll need to re-learn to taste on that side? Or perhaps it may have to do with the fact that my face is numb on that side, on and off, with tingling between, so perhaps the taste buds are affected.

Do most people have a prefered side to chew or do they move the food around and chew one side, and then the other. Or both sides at once with the food distributed both sides.

I know these are strange questions to ask, but I'm intrigued!

#2 Post by **RakudaErin** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:00 pm

I chew more on one side than the other, but not JUST on one side.

#3 Post by **chillin-in-grilz** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:17 pm

I chew on my left side. By bite is better on the left. But can chew on right, it just seems strange.

#4 Post by **sweetpea** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:54 am

Thanks for your replies - I expect more people than I realised chew on only one side.

#5 Post by **crazybeautiful** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:13 am

I chew on my left side for ease and comfort. If I try and chew on my right, I just grind and it isn't comfortable for my jaw (slants to the left when I bite down to make both sides touch. Normally, only two or three teeth touch on my left side- that's all!). Sometimes I just get days where I constantly bite my inner cheek and it bugs me so much I have to force my jaw to touch at my right side and chew at that side.

Different issue, but as with the cheek thing, some days my left 'fang' inparticular (pictures on my Hi! thread somewhere

) just seems really sharpe and it irritates my lip. Odd that it seems to 'flare up' some days, as it were. Odd indeed

. But at least I will be getting things underway soon...not soon enough is all I can say

#6 Post by **Brandyleigh35** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:17 am

I've chewed back and forth on both sides sorta like Meryten, off and on, but mostly on the left hand side as I have a full lower bridge on the right. Last year though I had a fouled up root canal and they ended up having to pull my lower left molar. During all my surgery this last May I had a bone graft there, and in October will be going in for an implant pillar to be placed.

Soo....at the moment and really for the last year and a half I can only chew on my right side. It it getting easier but is still far from being perfect. Sorta like you... since surgery, my inside left cheek is still rather numb and so is about half of my tongue (which also seems to have no tastebuds.) It was fine before surgery so I know this is a surgery side effect. It does slowly seem like its coming back though so hopefully by next March when I get the final part of the implant placed I will again be able to chew on my left side, and taste food again like before. I'm looking forward to it as it just doesn't feel normal to really chew on the right.

Do any of you find your favorite chewing side coincides with which handed you are? I mean I'm right handed for writing, but for sports and everything else I do it left handed. Even when my son was born I always nursed him on the left, and I prefer chewing on my left side. Just wondered if there was any coorelation???

Brandy

#7 Post by **sweetpea** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:44 pm

That's an interesting concept Brandy, whether people prefer to chew according to left or right handedness. I've also noticed that people who have asymmetry seem be longer on the right (like me) and shorter on the left (and the majority of people are right handed). I wish I was a scientist, because I think this ought to be researched!

#8 Post by **Brandyleigh35** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:12 pm

LOL...this is the kindof stuff that pops into my head all the time! Not sure if there is a coorelation, but it is interesting to ponder.

Brandy

#9 Post by **crazybeautiful** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:16 pm

To help with your hypothesis

, I am left-handed and chew on my left side predominantly. Although as I've said, my jaw and teeth are in need of very serious correction and I think generally it is down to that

PS- Lefties rule!