In Part 1 we examined five of the top 10 ways to stop teeth grinding and pressing (bruxism). While you might not have enjoyed the idea of buying a bear mask and tried it, maybe try the idea, a quality mattress pad or a good chiropractic care, sounded a bit 'was more your style. Or perhaps you've noticed that you might try biofeedback to stop grinding teeth for free, or that you are using a course in Positive Psychology at Harvard for free. Welldon't just sit there, go for it. Many people have found these things can make a real difference. Here are the rest of the top ten ways to stop tooth grinding and clenching:
Eliminating things you are allergic to. Some people have found through experimentation that when they eliminate certain foods from their diet, they discover that the amount of teeth grinding and clenching they do reduces drastically.
Exercise regularly. Regular exercise changes how you feel. It changes your whole neurological experience of yourself, and those changes can (and often do) reduce many undesirable habits, including tooth grinding and clenching.
Hypnosis. Many people think (mistakenly) that hypnosis is letting someone else put you under their control, so they can make you cluck like a chicken. Actually the clinical definition of hypnosis is "focused attention in the absence of critical thinking". Watching a good movie is an example of hypnosis many of us enjoy regularly. Hypnosis can be a good method of purposefully training yourself to fall into thought patterns that are good for you instead of thought patterns that are bad for you. Hypnosis can be particularly powerful when combined with biofeedback, where the hypnosis is used to train you how to respond well to the biofeedback.
Change the sound of your sleep environment. What you dream about while you are asleep can have a strong influence on the amount of tooth grinding you do in your sleep. Many people find that they can Impact on their dreams, from the sounds in sleep, and many find that to reduce peaceful or pleasant dreams teeth grinding activities. One way to do this is to purchase a soothing sound machine (commercially available, such as Brookstone or The Sharper Image). These electronic devices are audio tracks, digital sounds, like ocean surf, rain, wind chimes, etc. is recorded
Another way you can sleep in an acoustic environment is changing at a stereo or portable useplay CDs with soothing sound tracks, or sound tracks that you think will bring you good dreams. What one person finds relaxing or inspiring may not be relaxing or inspiring for someone else, so when choosing your sound track, trust your own instincts.
Get a massage. If you are like many people, how well you treat yourself will show up in how much you grind your teeth. Getting a massage regularly or even occasionally makes a big difference in the amount of tooth grinding that some people do. If you want to actually measure how much of a difference this or any of the other top ten ways to reduce tooth grinding makes in the amount of tooth grinding you do, you can use the biofeedback headband discussed in part 1 of this article to measure your tooth grinding before and after. For instance, if you want to know how much difference a massage makes in your teeth grinding, you can wear the biofeedback headband in silent mode for a few nights before your massage, and for a few nights following your massage, and measure the difference in how much you grind your teeth before and after the massage.
So there you have it. A lot of the things you can do to reduce nighttime tooth grinding and clenching are things that will make your life more enjoyable to begin with. You might also want to check out StopGrinding.org, which is one of the best non-profit resource websites on the web listing ways that people have found relief from tooth grinding, bruxism & TMJ. I wish you success and enjoyment in your tooth-grinding-reducing experiments.
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