To ask for your help with jaw clenching/grinding

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I have TMD and all my life I’ve had a habit of clenching my jaw. I used to grind my teeth but through steely determination I’ve managed to stop that. Jaw clenching OTOH... I do it in my sleep and it wakes me up throughout the night.

I had a custom-made guard from the dentist but it only makes it worse, and from what I’ve read a lot of dentists don’t like prescribing them anymore for this reason.

Aside from the soreness and aching throughout the day, my masseter muscles are enlarged and make my face look rounder than it is

I’m so desperate that sometimes I consider stuffing a rag or something into my mouth when I go to bed. Now that I’m getting ready for bed, I’m catching myself clenching already. It’s like I don’t know what to do with my jaw when I’m not using it I hope all suffers get a decent, minimally-clenching night’s sleep tonight.

Have you considered hypnosis?

I went on a course to learn self-hypnosis. I hypnotised my self to wake up if I snored, to spare my late DH, and irritatingly have never bothered reversing it so wake up pretty often. Procrastination is another of my besetting vices, I even put off self-hypnosis

I'm a jaw-clencher, but only by day (that I'm aware of) so will give it a go and report back. Like others, the clenching is all about the job.

I do this too, particularly the clenching. It’s totally stress related for me and the mouth guard did nothing. I got mine on the NHS when I was pregnant because dental being covered when you are pregnant. Not sure if this is still the case.
I find limiting stress, getting decent sleep including a wind down period before bed and cutting down on caffeine helps. Also massage.

Hi I’ve suffered with TMJ up until a year ago I tried every therapy, custom made mouth guards which cost £600, Botox be cerezen. Do not waste your money on cerezen they are expensive and don’t work I used mine for more than 6 months and it didn’t stop the clenching. I went to see a cranial osteopath and within 2 sessions I was pain free, I’ve been pretty much pain free for a year, I was sceptical but it worked. I also stopped using my mouthguard about 5 months ago and I no longer clench, this exacerbated the problem and as my osteo said pushes the muscle into an unnatural position at night causing more problems. I hope you can find some relief

You probably have a magnesium deficiency (most people do). Get yourself some remag

Thanks so much for posting this. I have TMD too. I get pains all the way down the left side of my face and the left side of my jaw and neck. Mouth guard was useless.
Things that have reduced the pain for me a bit are:

(a) Bamboo pillow (nice and firm, quite high, gives decent support for my face and neck)

(b) Thinking about where I hold my tongue in my mouth - it should be quite high with the tip towards your top front teeth - it used to lie quite flat in my mouth which apparently makes TMD worse

(c) Getting a stand for my mobile phone and varifocals (I am old!) which meant that I spent less time hunched over the phone with my neck and shoulders bunched - also thinking about my posture generally

(d) various strategies and changes to my life to resolve stress, which probably won't help much as they are specific to my circumstances but which did make a lot of difference.

It isn't totally cured and I can't face Botox at the moment but I am so glad to read that other people are getting the same symptoms as me - sometimes it is so bad that I have worried that the ENT missed something much more serious