SleepRight Dental Guard Blog » Awareness

3-Step Self-Help Philosophy

SleepRight — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:46:52 +0000

To protect teeth from clenching and grinding is one thing–breaking a bad neuromuscular habit to control clenching and grinding is entirely another. Our SleepRight® dental guard is designed to protect your teeth while you learn to develop a new approach for managing your own health care.

Awareness
We strongly suggest you begin wearing the SleepRight® dental guard 30-60 minutes before sleep. Keep your “lips together and teeth apart” while in your conscious state of mind, never allowing the teeth to bite down on the bitepads. This will increase your awareness of the habit to clench and grind your teeth. Conscious awareness of “lips together, teeth apart” is necessary for the brain to make the appropriate changes to relax while you sleep. The SleepRight® dental guard does not attach to the teeth. The soft strap and learning to control the muscles of the mouth will keep the appliance in place.

Accountability
You must accept the responsibility to manage your own health care. The SleepRight® dental guard bitepads will establish the space that should exist naturally between your teeth when you are relaxed. Do not bite down on the bitepads…this is very important, although the urge to do so will test your concentration. Finding evidence of clenching and grinding on the bitepads show your efforts to concentrate on “lips together, teeth apart” must be raised to a higher level.

Behavior Modification
The brain does not distinguish between good and bad learning, it just learns. You must repeat the desirable model, “lips together, teeth apart”, until it is a healthy habit, no longer needing your conscious supervision. Your ultimate goal is to eliminate the dependency on a night guard as soon as possible. Everyone’s learning curve is different, so be patient.

SleepRight Side Sleeping Pillow Giveaway at TMJ Hope

SleepRight — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:58:57 +0000

Here’s how the SleepRight® Side Sleeping Foam Pillow works ~

The Visco-elastic memory foam pillow conforms to your facial contours by taking an impression of your head and neck anatomy. This greatly minimizes the unwanted side effects of pressure points, which is a benefit unavailable in regular pillows. As your head settles into the full facial cradle, the memory foam pillow will softly conform to your personal anatomy. The memory foam will automatically adjust to your body temperature and head weight as your head and neck stabilize in its resting place. When equalization between head weight and the elasticity of the memory foam pillow is achieved, your head and neck posture will be ideally aligned with your spinal column.

Follow the link below and enter to win the SleepRight® Side Sleeping Pillow:

http://www.tmjhope.org/2010/11/sleepright-tmj-pillow/#comments

Interesting Celebrity Bruxism Article From The UK

SleepRight — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:46:16 +0000

When Katie Price flew to America to see her dentist recently, it was to have her teeth veneers fixed because they had become loose, and it was not the first time it had happened….Read More

http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/3313-Katie-Priceqaposs-teeth-grinding-causes-dental-veneer-problems

Good Tips to Avoid Teeth Grinding

SleepRight — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:30:31 +0000

A few tips were posted recently by the Dental Tribune on preventing teeth grinding. Here’s a few good ones:

1) Take a pain reliever.
If grinding and clenching is causing you headaches and muscle soreness in your jaw, take an anti-inflammatory medication, like Advil or Aleve, shortly before bedtime.

2) Massage.
Try massaging the muscles along your jaw line, from the joint near your ear all the way to your chin to relieve jaw soreness.

3) Avoid caffeine.
Coffee may help you get going in the morning, but caffeine combined with stress can lead to increased muscle tension. Increase your consumption of water. If cutting caffeine completely from your life won’t work for you, at least try to avoid it within several hours of bedtime.

4) Wear a mouth guard.
If you have serious grinding and clenching issues, talk to your dentist about a mouth guard to wear at night.

More tips can be found here: http://www.dental-tribune.com/articles/content/scope/news/region/usa/id/1910

Sleep Right Dental Guard Information and Review

SleepRight — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:41:01 +0000

Rhona-Mae Arca over at suite101.com wrote a review about our SleepRight Secure-Comfort dental guard. She goes into quite a bit of detail on the care of the dental guard. While her article says you can brush it with mouthwash or toothpaste, our revised care instructions recommend only rinsing in either cool water or mouthwash to lessen wear and tear on the dental guard while cleaning.

Read more of her review and article here: http://oral-health.suite101.com/article.cfm/sleepright-secure-comfort-dental-guard

TMJ Excercises to Relieve Jaw Pain

SleepRight — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:52:27 +0000

Here’s a few exercises that may help relieve the pressure and jaw pain associated with TMJ:

For the first TMJ exercise to relieve pain; sit comfortably on a chair with a strong back rest. Try placing your tongue on the roof of the mouth. Try to open your mouth with your tongue still in the same position; breathe in slowly for a few seconds and breathe out for a few. Close your mouth. Repeat this exercise 10 times for TMJ disorder.
TMJ disorder creates an unwanted shifting of the jaw to one side. People suffering from TMJ disorder suffer from deviated jaws. It means when they open their jaws; the jaw shifts to one side. Stand in front of your bathroom mirror. Have a close look at your jaw, see on which side it is shifted. Try and open your mouth straight. This would require a lot of efforts from the muscles of the damaged side. Open and close your mouth correctly 10 times and take a breather. Repeat 3 sets of 10 each. Do these 3 sets 5 times a day.
Press your fist against the damaged side of the jaw below the TMJ. Maintain a low force. Hold for 10 seconds and release. Repeat this 3 times for TMJ pain treatment on both the sides of the jaw. Learn TMJ treatment options.
This is a jaw exercise for TMJ disorder. Open your mouth as wide as you can. Put your fist on your chin and push to open it more wider. It will hurt a little, but it’s like a massage. Hold this position for 20 seconds. Repeat this TMJ exercise 5 times in a day.
Open your mouth wide and try to move the jaw to the right side as more as you can. With your fingers push your jaw to the right side even more. This slight pull would cause a repair movement in the jaws. Hold this for 20 seconds. Do this exercise 4 times a day.

For more on this article visit: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tmj-exercises.html

Study shows correlation between teeth grinding, stress, and stress-coping

SleepRight — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:08:26 +0000

A recent study released in Head & Face Medicine shows that people with teeth grinding activities during sleep tend to be more stressed at work and in their daily life. It’s suggested that this may influence their physical state and cause them to grind their teeth at night. These people also seem to deal with stress negatively and this might increase their likelihood of grinding. For more information on this study visit http://www.head-face-med.com/content/6/1/2

Product Review from the UK

SleepRight — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:41:44 +0000

I recently stumbled across this review from someone in the UK. I know it’s kind of dated but she brings up some good issues to address.

Her review is here:
http://www.kissandmakeup.tv/2009/04/product_review_97.html

She says the following, “…after a week or so of wearing the splint I began to find that the band was irritating my lower gum and my boyfriend relayed that he saw me take the guard out during sleep. I cannot be sure whether this was due to my lack of ability in fitting the guard properly or whether it was simply repeated wear that had led to the raw feeling, however, I began wearing the guard less and less.”

For instances where gum irritation may occur because of the thermal band, we usually recommend creating a barrier between your gums and the band using oral agents like Anbesol or Carmex.

It could also be that some people have especially small mouths and the Dura-Comfort and Secure-Comfort aren’t going to fit properly. For those people we usually recommend the Slim-Comfort in the green box:

We also recommend wearing the product for a few nights just to get accustomed to it. That may be hard advice to follow, but there’s always an adjustment period regarding personal products.

Savvy Senior: Tips and treatments for snoring

SleepRight — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:09:22 +0000

“Dear Savvy Senior: My 60-year-old husband has become a terrible snorer, especially over the past few years. It’s gotten to the point I can’t stand to sleep in the same room as him anymore. What can help us?

— Sleepless Sandy”

The author recommends the SleepRight Side Sleeping Pillow to help alleviate snoring. You can buy the pillow here:
http://splintek.com/foam-pillow.html

Relief for jaw pain: TMJ symptoms and treatment

SleepRight — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:18:29 +0000

“Thirty-five million Americans are bothered by the discomfort of temporomandibular joint and muscle disorders(TMJDs),also called “TMJ.” This group of poorly understood conditions causes pain and limited movement of the jaw.”

They also offer some tips to alleviate the jaw pain that is associated with TMJ, including eating soft foods, not chewing gum, and applying a compress.