For almost a year I’ve known I clench my teeth when I sleep. I would wake up with a sore jaw all of the time and it would pop constantly. I asked my dentist about it and he was completely unhelpful. All he told me to do was stop drinking caffeine after lunch time. I’m a full-time college student so I knew that wasn’t happening. I asked him about getting a mouth guard and he told me that they were expensive and no one ever wears them anyway so he didn’t want to make one for me… Thanks a lot.

Then I started noticing that I clench during the day too. Usually when I’m studying and stressed. It was getting to the point where my jaw was sore constantly and I would be worn out from chewing my food. A couple of weeks ago I went out and bought a night guard (basically like a huge sports mouth piece) from the store for $20. I just had to put it into hot water for a few seconds and it molded perfectly to my teeth.

I wear it every night and it’s definitely helping a lot. If I do clench, it at least takes some of the pressure off of my teeth. My jaw feels much better plus I’ve noticed that during the day it feels natural to keep my teeth separated, like it should, rather than before when I only felt normal if they were touching. I’m glad I finally decided to do something about it myself since my dentist didn’t want to do his job and help me.