I grind my teeth

What this looks like

You wake up with a sore jaw. You catch yourself clenching during the day without realizing you’re doing it. Your dentist points out the flat spots. Your night guard is wearing through faster than it should. You’ve been grinding long enough that you can’t remember when it started.

You’re putting tension in your jaw because the rest of you has nowhere else to put it.

What you’ve already tried

• A custom night guard, then a thicker one
• Botox in the masseter muscles
• A sleep study to rule out apnea
• Stress management techniques
• A stretching routine for the jaw
• Daytime check-ins to catch the clenching
• Magnesium and other supplements

You’re still grinding.

What’s your stress signature?

Why the night guard isn’t enough

You very likely came out of a period in your life where you absorbed a load that your body has been holding for you. You may have grown up in a household where you couldn’t safely express what was bothering you, so you started clenching it down. You may have built a career where you have to swallow what you can’t say to clients, bosses, or colleagues. You may have decided as a child that strong feelings were dangerous and trained yourself to lock them in your jaw before they could come out anywhere visible.

The night guard you wear is a barrier. It saves your teeth from the grinding without reaching why you’re grinding. Botox weakens the muscle so the damage is less. You’re still driving the grind, and other muscles take over partially.

For the related TMJ pattern, see I have TMJ . For tension headaches, which often pair with this, see I have tension headaches .

You’re using your jaw to hold what you’ve never felt safe to release. We work on the holding.

How we work with it

Strategic therapy names what your jaw has been doing for you, in parallel with whatever your dentist has prescribed for protection. We name the specific things you’ve been clenching down rather than saying or doing, and we change what happens with them in your waking life. Your jaw stops being the storage location because the storage stops being needed.

Your jaw releases its second job and goes back to chewing.