Holistic Dental Care: A Novel Cure for Teeth Grinding
by Jessica Shireman
BUILD BUILD MORE MORE THAN THAN MUSCLE. MUSCLE. Claire Chapin Epps YMCA Family YMCA Claire Chapin Epps Family 5000 Claire Chapin Epps Dr. Myrtle Beach 5000 Claire Chapin Epps Dr.SC 29588 www.coastalcarolinaymca.org Myrtle Beach SC 29588 843.449.9622 For a better us. www.coastalcarolinaymca.org 843.449.9622
For a better us.
To the healthcare professionals who are risking their lives during this epidemic, thank you for fighting COVID-19 on the front lines.
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powerful moment in my path to health and wellness happened recently. Between three kids and a dental practice and more, sleeping well is critical. One night before bed, I searched for my DNA appliance. I asked my husband if he had seen it; he hadn’t. I wandered around the house and checked out all my usual stashing places: No luck. “Ugh,” I internalized. “I’ll wake up tomorrow with sore teeth from grinding. I’ll be so tired tomorrow.” I’m no stranger to wearing things in my mouth when I sleep: two years of Invisalign before the DNA appliance, retainers, nightguards that I could not wear (I think the count is six) and braces when I was a teenager. We laughed when my girl would steal my hot pink nightguard and attempt to wear it while wandering around the house. In brutal honesty, I spent more than 15 years of my life as a competitive swimmer, years that were plagued with sinus infections. I remember doing saline rinses so I didn’t have to have sinus surgery. I probably took more than 100 rounds of antibiotics as sinus infections knocked on the clock just like a monthly cycle; my mother called the physician for another antibiotic when I felt one coming. With complete exhaustion and frustration, I resolved the appliance was on my desk at work and I would find it the
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next day. With dread, I laid down and went to sleep. To my surprise, I woke up the next morning after over nine hours of sleep. I dreamt and my teeth weren’t sore, probably one of the first times ever: I hadn’t been grinding. Was this actually possible? Grinding is prevalent amongst modern populations. In clinical practice, I used to believe that grinding was the nighttime manifestation of stress. I ground; I was stressed; this made sense. I was wrong. One day I learned that grinding was a sign of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). The prevalence of SDB in the modern population starts at 40% and is not well-documented. I have had multiple sleep tests; I don’t have sleep apnea. I have a condition called Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome. It means that my maxillary jaw is small. The causation stems back to the works of Weston Price and his studies of nutrition. Poor stimulation of the maxillary jaw during the critical years of nutrition results in poorly developed upper jaws. When you look at the maxilla in detail, you realize it reaches from your upper teeth all the way to the bottom of your eyes. And this absolutely includes the sinuses. Six months of growing my upper jaw at 0.25 millimeters per week resulted in a night of sleep that my upper jaw was big enough that my body didn’t choke for air during the night. My dark circles were smaller. I haven’t even
