Bruxism Treatment Guy answers:

Duderino — “Obviously you’re not a golfer”

Even if you didn’t get that quote from the Big Lebowski — keep reading. I grind my teeth at night, and I suffer from the same thing.

I suppose it is stress related for me, but what really matters is the consequences of grinding, and how I can slow it down and save my limited-edition grill. Seriously, we all get one set of teeth and getting drilled and root-canaled is awful.

I visited the dentist earlier this month, and he said he could find groove patterns indicative of grinding — and that several of my teeth in the back were actually worn down. He also asked me if I ever have pain near my ear where my jaw connects to my skull, and I do! For a while now, especially when I shave up near my sideburns, I’d have this annoying sharp pain.

Anyways, he recommended a mouth guard, I said no way and that was that.

Then I started waking up in the middle of the night because my teeth were grinding against my new fillings, and it hurt me enough to wake up.

I went back to the dentist, and he gave me what’s called an “NTI”. I was skeptical at first (and I’ve only worn it now for 2 days), but I’ve been able to sleep fine with it. I even woke up a few times because I was trying to grind against the NTI and the weird (not painful) sensation woke me up.

The cool part is that I can sleep with it, my jaw doesn’t hurt, and I feel like I’ll be saving my teeth down the line.

Ask your dentist about an NTI. Downside is they are about $500 bucks and you can’t drink beer (or white russians) while it’s in use.

Good luck!