Question:
My son, now 26 has had migraines for most of his life. When he was a teen,
he was checked for TMJ, but the orthodontist that saw him said his teeth
were aligned just fine. On our local evening news, they discussed the
subject of wearing a mouth guard to prevent teeth grinding, which they said
could be a migraine trigger. Hmmm. When he was small, the dentist asked me
if I ever heard him grinding his teeth, because his baby teeth were being
worn down like he was grinding them. But it was never something that I
would actually hear him do. Has anyone there found this to be a trigger?
Since he always awakes with his migraines full-blown, this might make some
sense, in his case.
Answer:
I'll second this. With a "standard" nite guard, if he's clenching or
grinding, he'll only clench or grind the nite guard, thus protecting his
teeth. With Jim's NTI, he will be conditioned to stop that behavior, and
relax the temporalis. There's a BIG difference. I can't predict success, but
the NTI is VERY different from a traditional nite guard.
I actually found out I was grinding from my dentist. He saw it on my teeth.
Not substantial damage, but he could see it across all the back teeth the
most. I knew I was doing some clenching, but he said I was probably
grinding at night and it had worked down some of my crowns. Have him go see
his dentist to examine his teeth. They can tell you right away if you're
grinding.
Yes, for me it has been a trigger sometimes when I get more tension related
migraines.
I have TMJ, and I used to grind my teeth or clench them very tightly
when I was going through a stressful time in my life. Sometimes when
the headaches were bad, and I felt the pain in my jaw, I would put my
mouth guard on. I also used it as a preventative method, in case I
happenned to become tense while sleeping. Now when I am stressed out,
I don't clench my teeth anymore. I don't know why this occurred.
