Week 4: chewing gum

I have a tendency to grind my teeth in my sleep. I did this before I had the braces fitted and I'm still doing it. I have woken up a couple of times with my upper front teeth biting down onto my lower, inner lip, too. The last thing I want to do now is find that as some of my teeth move I am grinding them down again, particularly the secondary incisors which had already worn down due to the position of the teeth in my lower jaw.

I considered getting my self a mouth guard from Amazon but as I wasn't sure this was the right thing to do I went back to the orthodontist to ask. As I suspected, she said that wearing a guard at night could stop my teeth moving as they should.

The solution she came up with was to use some of the material that is used by dentists to build up teeth and stick it on my upper molars to keep my teeth apart when my mouse is closed. What looks like mint imperials or chewing gum stuck to my teeth is this stuff.

It's hard, obviously, but I quickly got used to it and in fact it helps me chew my food as my molars didn't meet before, anyway.