Dental Health

[mada85]

Re: alternative to amalgams

I have found pretty open minded dentist who has been researching this for years, according to him amalgam is not more toxic then composite fillings, even porcelain because of high content of aluminum. Also, according to him we can get more mercury by ingesting the blue fish then from amalgams in our mouth and he says the biggest risk from amalgam comes during its removal. He thinks that the amalgam toxicity has been blown out of proportions by dental pharmaceutical industry in order to create bigger market for white fillings.

I think toxicity is not the only issue with amalgam fillings. Amalgam is also electrically conductive. The human body is an electrical organism and any metal implanted into the body is going to interfere with our normal electrical activity.

I had all my amalgam fillings replaced with white composite fillings about a year ago. I can't comment on the toxicity of the composite, but I can say that the horrible metallic taste in my mouth from the amalgam fillings completely disappeared once they were gone.

The dentist who did my teeth told me a couple of interesting things about amalgam. Over time the surface corrodes and becomes pitted providing a breeding ground for bacteria; and, amalgam fillings can expand over time causing the tooth to crack.

 

[Lilou]

Bruxism (teeth grinding)

A few weeks ago, I was experiencing a lot of facial pain, inflammation and even swollen lymph nodes on the left side of my face/neck. Since I had Bell’s Palsy in my early twenties, I have always “assumed” it was related to nerve inflammation. Hot castor oil packs had been my remedy for many years, and more recently, DMSO.

Well, I feel like an idiot for my “assumption”. As it turns out, my face pain and inflammation stems from my teeth grinding at night. I do not know exactly how many years I have been chomping away, but after some orthodontic work in 2008-09 (braces), my bite has become even worse. My husband tells me I sound like I am eating a 5 course meal every night!

Prompted to go to the dentist after a particularly painful episode and reading Dr. Mercola’s article about infected root canals, my dentist referred me to an oral surgeon, suggesting that my two upper wisdom teeth should be removed.

I did research into bruxism, and found that I have all the long term problems associated with it. I have had two root canals (left side) and even have extra bone growing in the floor of my mouth, the body’s response to support to the teeth I am grinding away every night.

The oral surgeon said he’d happily take out my two wisdom teeth, it’d take him about 15 minutes and he’d make a butt ton of money, but they do not need to come out. Whew! I was happy about that!

Instead, I talked to him about my bite, my grinding and he referred me to a specialist for a Bite Splint. I am lucky to have found him, he is one of the best in the state and teaches this at dental schools.

My Bite Splint was delivered 1 week ago and I have to wear it full time – night and day. This will put the jaw in the correct position and then the offending teeth that prevent the proper bite will be reshaped.

Funny thing, my chronically swollen lymph node on the left side has just about returned to normal. And all these years, I thought I was doing a big battle with the herpes virus, when really, my jaw was out of alignment!

I’ll update and let you know how this bite splint works out. My next appointment is in 4 days.

 

[Brewer]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Hi Lilou

I grind my teeth too and have used a splint now to correct the problem. There is still a lot of damage done to my molars and I need a lot of work done. I can't afford to go to the dentist in my home country Australia and I'm not that impressed with their work so I go to Thailand for my dentristry. I'm getting all my back teeth crowned in gold before they degrade to point of needing root canals. If you need a lot of work done would this be a possibility for you? I can recommend a good dentist and though the area her practise is located in is a typical tourist craphole it's well worth going. The Thais are wonderful people, I've learnt a little Thai and if you know just a little about their language and culture they'll open up to you. I'm going there at the end of this month for more work, been invited to a wedding too. Should be fun!

Take care

Brewer

 

[Lilou]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

I have a small fortune in my mouth already. I don't really need any extensive dental work done at this point. I do have a broken in-lay that has yet to be replaced on a molar, but nothing else. So if the bite splint will fix the grinding problem, I should be ok and not further damage anymore teeth. With any luck!

I did research bruxism and the idea that it is stress related, but I really think it is simply structural in my case. I fell as a child, smacking my left jaw on a concrete step - still have the scar. So that alone could have initiated the jaw being slightly out of position and it went downhill from there. And then got even worse after my braces.

That's great you can travel to Thailand for dental work. It would be too far for me to travel, just for one tooth. But it's good you got gold crowns, my dentist told me they were the best.

I've got my fingers crossed that this dentist can fix my bite and if he reshapes teeth to fit together properly, does one still have to sleep with this splint?

 

[pete02]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

I'm glad you brought this up Lilou cause I have been having a similar problem myself. I tend to grind my teeth a lot lately. I'm not really sure how long its been going on for because I had never noticed it until my last dental checkup when the assistant was cleaning my teeth and asked me "do you grind your teeth a lot?". At that point I started paying attention and noticed that I do indeed grind my teeth quite a lot during the day and sometimes when I wake up I can feel the pressure on my jaw from doing it in my sleep.

Your speaking of jaw alignment has me wondering if this was the result of the root canal and crown my dentist from years ago put in. I left this guy because I felt the work he did was unnecessary and he was just trying to squeeze my insurance company for some bucks. I even reported him to the insurance company but they didn't seem to care. Anyhow he put a crown in and it never quite seemed to line up with my bite and now I'm curious if this has thrown my jaw out of alignment and caused this bruxism.

I'll be due for my second yearly cleaning in a few months and I'll be sure to ask about this because it has become really annoying. Sometimes I can actually feel the pressure/tension build up in my temples and the only solution I've found so far is to do some pipe breathing to cool it down but that seems to be only a short term remedy.

 

[RedFox]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Hi Lilou
Am curiouse if you have amalgam fillings? I ask because grinding our teeth at night excessively can be a sign of mercury toxicity.

 

[Lilou]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

No, I don't have any amalgam fillings. I had all these removed at age 26, over 20 years ago.

 

[thorbiorn]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Thank you Lilou, for mentioning the problems with root canals and referring to what Dr Mercola has to say. Now I have read up on this topic – a bit late as I am in the process of getting one done, but then I can have it removed or substituted later.

Teeth grinding has also been an issue for me. It caused lower backpain more than jawpain, and was relieved by wearing a splint, which I wore at night. After about 20 years of using it regularly, I somehow discovered that I did not get back pain anymore even when not using the splint. I never managed to find out completely what the reason was/is. I had the amalgam fillings removed but that did not help. Then I thought it was due to wisdomteeths pressing some nerves and had four pulled out, but that unfortunately changed nothing except the number of teeths.

As to muscle tensions during the night I have found that it is important that I am relaxed when I fall asleep.
Sometimes I find tensions I have when I fall aleep continue throughout the night because they are upheld subconscioulsy. Additionally the tension in one part of the body can affect another part. For instance, I experience less tension in the back when the fingers are more or less stretched. Therefor I mostly prefer to sleep on my back with palms down, because when I sleep on the side, I tend to have slightly curled fingers which when mainted for long somehow creates a discomfort. But then if it has happened and I wake up with some discomfort in the lower back working with the hands may release most of that tension. I am wondering if working with shoulder area/upper back, neck and face muscles will help to relieve tension in the jaw area.

 

[Risen]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Interesting topic. I just wanted to add that teeth grinding has also been linked to lack of calcium in the diet and is also a symptom of roundworms.

 

[Oxajil]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Perhaps thinking about the symbolic meanings of teeth problems or grinding will be helpful as well. They can be found in this thread made by Endymion. I'll repost a part of it here:

Teeth represent decisions.
Problems with teeth: longstanding indecisiveness. Inability to break down ideas for analysis and decisions.

Bruxism, or grinding of the teeth, generally occurs during sleep as the mind ruminates about all the anger and tension that you kept inside during your waking hours. […] You must decide to handle this anger before it becomes a bigger problem than simple bruxism.

 

[pete02]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Interesting topic. I just wanted to add that teeth grinding has also been linked to lack of calcium in the diet and is also a symptom of roundworms.

Funny you should bring this up opossum because I was just reading the "life without bread" thread before and saw that Gonzo had pointed out to one of the other members how calcium wasn't on their list of supplements and realized that its not on mine either. I throw a multi vitamin in each day to make up for anything I might be missing but I suppose its possible its not giving me the amount of calcium I need. I'll have to check out the amount on that bottle but I think I'm gonna try and up my calcium for a while and see what happens.

At first the alignment thing seemed to make more sense to me and it still could very possibly be the problem because my dentist did want to replace it last year but my insurance said it had to be in five years before a replacement could be authorized. He never actually told me why he wanted to replace it but if its because my alignment is not sitting properly then the insurance company and I are gonna go toe to toe until they approve it. However in the meantime a little more calcium in my diet can't hurt until I get back to the dentist and if I'm lucky maybe it will help.

 

[thorbiorn]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

I looked up Endymion's post that Oxalji referred to, and found that the quote from Lise Bourbeau is listed under 'Mental block' in the original quote. In addition there is more in the beginning of the quote, if one accepts that "bruxism" and "grinding of teeth" are not far apart.

Physical block
The following conditions are considered problematic: pain that comes from decayed or broken teeth, grinding of the teeth or crooked teeth.

I think I can relate to this. If some of the problems with grinding teeth did clear up, maybe it was because some block was released. It will be interesting to reflect on these hints, and observe if anything more clears up.

In my search today I came across a site which has a few articles on the holistic aspect of dental healing _http://www.healingteethnaturally.com/holistic.html If you study some of the sub-pages you will come across a story about a 54 year old Chinese woman and Falun Gong practitioner who apparently can grow new teeth, _http://www.healingteethnaturally.com/falun-dafa-qigong-regrowing-teeth.html. Does this mean that if some of us end up grinding our teeth down to nothing that we simply need to regrow new ones? Maybe, but it would probably not work without first having many of the issues sorted out that are claimed by Bourbeau and Hay to be at the root of difficulties with teeth.

 

[Brewer]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

G'day!

Interesting posts, constructive! I'll write more later, off to work! I use this splint http://smiledynamics.com.au/nti.html.

Google NTI splint for an image

It doesn't cover your entire teeth and it works by not allowing the jaw muscles to use their full strength to grind as the teeth cannot meet. In theory this should stop your jaw bones from being damaged and I find this type of splint works well for me. Cost me $400.00 Australian 4 years ago.

The full teeth version will stop physical damage to the actual tooth surfaces but as your jaws can still meet and grind with their full force, you can still get the headaches, neck pain and such and the jawbones and teeth can still get damaged. The NTI version stops the jaw and all the associated muscles from using their full force, something to do with the mechanincs of the jaw. It sits on my two upper incisors and I thought that it would put huge pressure on those teeth but after 4 years it doesn't seem to be the case. I also thought that I'd swallow or inhale the thing but I'm and it's still here! Takes a bit of getting used to but I find it's working well.

Take care

 

[Nimue]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Hi all,

this is a very interesting topic , I was long enough a hardcore “grinder” , since childhood I have pressed and grinded my teeth, finally after 30 years of grinding, I have lost approx. 6 mm of dental substance and as a result obtained a malocclusion.

My dentist has told me that I have a psychosomatic syndrome and I should learn to relax. 2010 I have had a new dentist and a complete Restoration of all my teeth, cause of my long time career as grinder, I had to deal with the long- term effects like headaches, neck tensions and shoulder pain and especially the extreme loss of dental substance, so I was forced to do something…. and a good side effect was the removal of the amalgam fillings, which also was planned by my doc and me in order to deal with other health problems.

For those of you who still have this Restoration marathon to do, it is very important to look for a dentist, who makes a complete functional analysis and if required, through loss of dental substance, a phased vertical increase of occlusion. I could only write about my experience, but for me it was one of the best decisions in reference to the grinding problem... Prophylactical I have also a bite splint, but so far, my nocturnal grind sessions were over.

A big help is also my ketogenic/primal diet, there is no longer this strange inner tension, and daily pressing (my teeth) , I am more calmer and I am sleeping better than ever.

To take only psychosomatic problems into account obviously is no holistic approach.
I think a combination of relaxing, activity, right diet, supplementation and get your teeth done in the functional right way, is important to treat grinding.

I am very interested to hear some further ideas how to deal with grinding..

Thank you :)

Nimue

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Re: Bruxism (teeth grinding)

Thank you for creating this thread, Lilou. I went to a sleep clinic a few weeks ago and learned that I suffer from bruxism as well. I bought this mouth guard on Amazon: _http://www.amazon.com/Dental-Hygiene-Preferred-Complete-Colors/dp/B000ELYIVM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333504843&sr=8-1, but just couldn't get it to fit right no matter how I trimmed it. I just received my pricey custom mouth guard from the dentist yesterday and slept better than usual last night! Also, my lower jaw is not sore like it usually is. It's too early to tell if the guard is improving my sleep, but I'll update this thread once I've been using it for longer.

Perhaps thinking about the symbolic meanings of teeth problems or grinding will be helpful as well. They can be found in this thread made by Endymion. I'll repost a part of it here:

Teeth represent decisions.
Problems with teeth: longstanding indecisiveness. Inability to break down ideas for analysis and decisions.

Bruxism, or grinding of the teeth, generally occurs during sleep as the mind ruminates about all the anger and tension that you kept inside during your waking hours. […] You must decide to handle this anger before it becomes a bigger problem than simple bruxism.

Thanks for the quotes, Oxajil! I could see how being angry, tense or frustrated would increase the occurence of teeth grinding/clenching at night, but I've been really low-stress lately, yet I'm still doing it. My mom and brother also suffer from bruxism and they are rather low-stress people. Sometimes I will do EE at night, be very relaxed and sleep very well, but still wake up with a bit of an achy jaw.

Interesting topic. I just wanted to add that teeth grinding has also been linked to lack of calcium in the diet and is also a symptom of roundworms.

Funny you should bring this up opossum because I was just reading the "life without bread" thread before and saw that Gonzo had pointed out to one of the other members how calcium wasn't on their list of supplements and realized that its not on mine either. I throw a multi vitamin in each day to make up for anything I might be missing but I suppose its possible its not giving me the amount of calcium I need. I'll have to check out the amount on that bottle but I think I'm gonna try and up my calcium for a while and see what happens.

At first the alignment thing seemed to make more sense to me and it still could very possibly be the problem because my dentist did want to replace it last year but my insurance said it had to be in five years before a replacement could be authorized. He never actually told me why he wanted to replace it but if its because my alignment is not sitting properly then the insurance company and I are gonna go toe to toe until they approve it. However in the meantime a little more calcium in my diet can't hurt until I get back to the dentist and if I'm lucky maybe it will help.

I've been supplementing with 700mg of calcium daily, (which I'm now thinking is way too much), but it doesn't seem to have prevented me from grinding/clenching my teeth at night.