Guess what I did tonight? Go ahead, give it your best shot.
If you guessed "fit yourself for a night guard so you stop grinding your teeth into oblivion" than you are correct!
We've had a bit of stress over here at Shiny Red Houses lately and it's been manifesting itself in all sorts of new and exciting ways. More specifically, it's turning me into my mother, a woman who has perfected the art of manifesting stress in dozens of different ways. Job stress- migraine. Emotional stress- stomach ache. Stress caused by blogging daughter- back spasm.
I've been waking up the last few mornings very aware that my jaw is clenched. My dentist has been trying to talk me into buying a gold plated ruby encrusted night guard for the last year. At least I assume that it is gold plated and ruby encrusted since it costs a car payment, which I suppose is a small price to pay for not destroying your own teeth, but still.
Today I made my way to Walgreens, a happy place where dreams come true. There I selected a do-it-yourself night guard that the clerk at Walgreens assured me would do the job. It was 29.99 which I'll be honest with you, was about 20 dollars more that I really wanted to spend.
Tonight after I put the kids to bed I went downstairs to create my very own customized night guard. Upon reflection I now realize that I should have invited the kids to watch and it considered it the homeschool version of introduction to dentistry. They could set up a little stand on our street- Lemonade/night guard stand!
Customizing this night guard involved the use of a pot of boiling water, a stop watch and my teeth. Believe it or not, I followed the instructions and it worked!
Now tonight I will enjoy the sleep of a woman whose mouth is filled with 29.99 worth of molded plastic.
Now if my back would stop spasming I'd be all set.
6 comments:
Sara, Good Luck with your clenched jaw. I had to fit a mouthguard for my young football playing son. I boiled the water and thought it said to put it in the water for 20 minutes instead of the correct 20 seconds and it came out a very droopy piece of plastic.
I paid $$$$$ and got mine from the dentist but the taste of it gives me scary dreams.
We can discuss the grinding of the teeth some other time--I do it too, and don't love my mouthguard--BUT--did you say your daughter is blogging?
I get it. Sara's mom gets stress back spasms because of the juicy and incriminating stories Sara tells us.
Make sure to tell everyone in a grim voice that you have bruxism. That's the official name and I only know it because my husband is a big medical nerd.
Once again your genes doomed you. But sleeping with a mouthful of plastic is preferable to jaw pain or actually cracking your teeth. Now that is truly financially painful.
xoxo
Wow! I hope it worked out! Mine is only $50 from dentist and lasts 2 years. I still grind so it wears through in that time. I don't know if I could do one of these after my fitted one. But you seem happy! I do enjoy not having my fillings fall out every 6 mths!
Hugs, Lisa
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