Tongue resting position

[chrisncal3]

Okay this may be slightly unrelated to braces but where do you guys rest your tongue when you're not speaking/eating?
Because I feel as if my tongue position is causing a lot of my dental problems atm, like my recent open bite may have been a consequence of my tongue position

Okay so basically long story short, I immigrated to Canada at a young age. But since English wasn't my first language, I had an accent when I spoke english, my voice was really unclear and it was hard to express myself.

So I thought maybe my tongue resting position affected my speech, cause before I put the tip of my tongue on the roof of my mouth. So I tried placing the tip of my tongue below my bottom teeth and lo and behold my speech miraculously improved and my voice became much deeper and clearer. I was really content with this change.

However, after doing some research, it shows that this resting position is really unhealthy and I think this resting position is causing my teeth and jaws/overall appearance to change because my bottom retainer doesn't fit anymore (my top one strangely still does) and I think this is because constant pressure from my tongue pushed my jaw forward or something or I may have developed tongue thrust :/

I know placing my tongue on the roof is healthy but somehow for me it really inhibits speech and if I place the tongue on the bottom it facilitates speech idk

Where do you guys rest the tip of your tongue generally in comparison to where your tongue generally is when you're talking? This issue is really bugging me because idk how other people speak clearly and nicely with their tongue on the roof

(sorry for the really odd question, it'd be really nice if you can help out!)

[sirwired]

Mine rests on the back of my upper teeth.

Whatever you do, get that bottom retainer replaced/adjusted ASAP. The longer you go without one, the more your teeth are going to relapse. (Lowers relapse faster than uppers, in general.)

[newbite]

Roof of my mouth and I try to make a conscious effort not to push my tongue against my front teeth . I used to push my tongue against my bottom teeth sometimes (eek!) before I had braces when I had jaw pain. THAT is not good and I still sometimes find myself doing it but it's getting rarer as I progress through braces.

The more important thing is what your tongue is doing when you SWALLOW. You do that hundreds of times a day and it exerts a lot of pressure. Your tongue should flatten against the roof of your mouth when you swallow-- not push against your bottom teeth or (heaven forbid) go between your teeth . Check out how you swallow.

[oregongirl]

I have the exact same problem, all of a sudden I started clenching and grinding after a tooth extraction so I got a night guard and this month has been 12 months, my bite is off a lot of pain. I had my new dentist tell me to go to ortho for the openbite, which I did 4 consults they all agreed on braces. Only one of the 4 recognized I was tongue thrusting. I went to my first appointment with a speech therapist and same question was where is the tongue suppose to rest and she said say the Letter "N". That's where your tongue needs to rest. Tongue thrusting is nasty little beast and I am not sure what threw out my bite the thrusting or the mouth guard. Either one is now going to cost money and time. I went to get my braces on 2 weeks ago everything was scheduled to go and my new dentist told the ortho that I have some pretty big fillings in my molars and she is afraid ortho will fracture those teeth with the large fillings. I am confused and broke, I am not sure if crown is better on before or after ortho. Either way to give me a crown is 1200 cash which I don't have so now I am in a stand still with an open bite and now scared I am going to break my 38 yr old fillings. I am 48 needing to fix an open bite and fix a tongue thrust habit. EEK

[newbite]

Oregongirl, I had a nightguard before I got braces and the reason I got braces was to fix my bite so my clenching/grinding wouldn't destroy my teeth. I only had my nightguard 6 months before I got braces and could tell my bite was changing for the worse with it (even though it *was* protecting my teeth from the clenching/grinding). I've read that one of the big problems with nightguards is that they can create an open bite with long term use. How are you supposed to protect your teeth if you can't use a mouth guard? Ugh. I've had braces going on 5 months now and haven't been able to use a mouth guard, and I haven't had any of the bruxism symptoms I was having before. However, I can tell I AM clenching at night (it's like my jaw is glued shut in the morning) I just have no pain from it anymore possibly because my teeth already fit so much better?

The reason I got my nightguard in the first place, and eventually braces, is that I had bad pain in a molar that has a large filling (sensitivity to hot and cold). Nothing showed up on the xray so the dentist assumed there were fractures and told me I had to get a root canal and crown. Hah, right! I got the nightguard instead and the tooth stopped hurting. I was still worried about the tooth, but unwilling to have it drilled down to a nub if it was unnecessary. When I got my braces I was really worried about it breaking or hurting and needing a crown/root canal while in braces (ugh!). I've had a bracket (not band) and wire on that tooth from day 1 and no pain or problems with the bracket falling off. I feel like I'm jinxing myself. I'm just hoping the tooth (and my receding gums) will hold out until after my braces are off and then I can get them fixed if needed. It's my understanding that it's better to have work done **after** your braces are off if you can possibly wait. That's what my ortho said, anyway, and what I've read.

Perhaps it was the tongue thrust AND night guard that caused your open bite, or perhaps your tongue thrust was caused by the nightguard. Either way, you need to fix your open bite and work on the tongue thrust both of which I believe an orthodontist can help you with? The only time I can imagine an ortho fracturing a tooth is when they remove the brackets at the end of treatment. I'm wary about that, myself, but it's a long ways away and I prefer to take a chance with the braces first than have a possibly unnecessary crown which can cause problems during braces.

[oregongirl]

Thank you for your reply. I agree with you we are running parallel lives aren't we. I just wish I would have had more confidence from the orthodontic that I was scheduled to have the braces put on with. I thought He would have come back with a solution regarding the big fillings, I called the day before and talked to the receptionist and asked her to talk to the ortho about what my dentist wrote regarding the big fillings. Instead of reassuring me which I thought was going to happen, the morning of hour before apt, the receptionist called and said ortho said it was up to me he would go with dentist opinion, up to me, hmm I know nothing. Its at a chain bright now dental, the ortho only comes in once a week. I researched the ortho he has his own practice somewhere else, I had confidence in him until he said that. So like a dummy I thought I will go yet again to another consult. This time the ortho had been practicing for 40 yrs. He contradicted everything I knew to be true. He said mouth guards don't throw off your bite, he discouraged me saying you can live with an open bite. Really!! I explained I have tmj pain he said it had nothing to do with the open bite, Really!! He did say he would protect the big molar so it wouldn't break. Common sense tells me the opposite. Started with the grinding, then the pain, got the mouth guard to stop the pain witch did 80 percent but then the bite opened up and now the jaw is working overtime trying to find its seat. He also told me not to waste my time with a speech therapist for tongue thrusting it wouldn't work, Really!! LOL. I was happy to leave his opinion, he said he had braces twice and still grinds, braces don't help with the grinding. I am thinking If my jaw is able to rest it will help with the grinding. I am going to proceed with the braces, I do have pt for tmj on the 9th. I am hoping to find out about the tmj problem and hoping to find more answers. So I concluded its not a good idea to get several opinions it just left me more bewildered. I am scared to give up my guard, this ortho that was scheduled to put on the braces did say he would cut it to help me keep it on. I appreciate the new dentist scared for my teeth she isn't ortho, but I do understand its easier to brace without crowns, which I have none. I will continue speech therapy.

[mmkay]

The more important thing is what your tongue is doing when you SWALLOW. You do that hundreds of times a day and it exerts a lot of pressure. Your tongue should flatten against the roof of your mouth when you swallow-- not push against your bottom teeth or (heaven forbid) go between your teeth . Check out how you swallow.

Actually that's a persistent myth (look it up in academic literature). Tongue resting position is what matters, as constant pressure is required.

[sirwired]

The more important thing is what your tongue is doing when you SWALLOW. You do that hundreds of times a day and it exerts a lot of pressure. Your tongue should flatten against the roof of your mouth when you swallow-- not push against your bottom teeth or (heaven forbid) go between your teeth . Check out how you swallow.

Actually that's a persistent myth (look it up in academic literature). Tongue resting position is what matters, as constant pressure is required.

Well, yes and no. What the tongue is doing while you swallow, in isolation, isn't particularly important. But your tongue going between your teeth during swallowing is a clear symptom of tongue thrust, which is bad. (It's hard to gauge what a tongue is doing during rest, but it's easy to spot where it is located during swallowing.)

[KayKay]

This is such an interesting topic since I've been obsessed with my tongue ever since I got my lingual arch and carriere' when I'm trying to go to sleep - especially.

At night, it seems my tongue is safer when I put it on the roof of my mouth. If I don't purposefully go to sleep with my tongue above the wire, I wake up at some point and the lingual arch feels sharp. My tongue sticks to it (dries out?) and when I adjust my tongue - ouchie!

I've mentioned it to my non-wired family and they look at me like I've snapped. I'm glad to have someplace to fit it.

[mmkay]

But your tongue going between your teeth during swallowing is a clear symptom of tongue thrust, which is bad. (It's hard to gauge what a tongue is doing during rest, but it's easy to spot where it is located during swallowing.)

Don't want to get into semantics, but as I say it "tongue thrust" does not refer to the rest position (myth 1):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22774700

Not commenting on the issue of whether existence of a tongue thrust may indicate evidence of the tongue constantly pushing against teeth during rest, only that the tongue thrust during swallowing by itself does not cause bite issues.