Metal Mouth Message Board

So I've had elastics for a couple weeks now and I have a question for those with them.

I notice that its almost as if I'm fighting against them all night long. I wake up with the worst jaw pain from clenching my teeth and I feel like my bite pulls against them to be in my natural position and not the new one that is being created.

Is this normal?

I only wear my elastics for about 10 hours a day (in the evenings and while sleeping) and I have a triangle setup.

Thoughts? So tired of waking up all night long clenching my teeth.

Hey, well I can only say from personal experience of having elastics for the last 8 weeks I have been experiencing the very light clenching, not heavy clenching. It's usually at night when I'm about to go to sleep that I find myself resisting the elastics by closing my mouth harder to take the pressure off the teeth which are being pulled by the elastics, and yeah I do think that this is slightly counteracting the purpose of elastics.

It takes a few weeks for your jaw muscles to get used of being in a new position, at first it took about 2-3 weeks before my joint felt better and this was after 24/7 wear. If you're doing the part time elastic wear I could perceive this jaw/elastic tennis match to go on for quite a while. If your ortho only prescribed part time wear then I guess you have got to do that!

Just my thoughts here, hope you find a solution. Maybe just try consciously relaxing your jaw and let the elastics do what they want to do.

I have the triangle configuration, but I wear them 24/7. I only experienced the clenching for the first few days after starting them. I've found that my teeth will actually start to hurt when I leave them out too long - it's great incentive to wear them all the time. Perhaps you're encountering it more because your teeth are getting a break for most of the day. I'm not sure if 10 hours is your choice or your ortho's, but I would bet that is partly your problem.

It was definitely not my choice, I'm wearing them as my ortho told me to. I have wondered too if the extra pain/pressure is because I'm out of them more than I am in them.

I have an adjustment in March, maybe he will change it then?

Thanks for your thoughts Maple and ChiChi!

It's possible he told you to wear them at night because you'd be more likely to wear them as prescribed if you didn't have to wear them all day (not you, personally... just as a patient in general). It can't hurt to ask if you can try wearing them full time and I would let him know about the pain you've been experiencing.

Good luck