One of the gifts MS has given me is bruxism. I grind my teeth. I in fact grind my teeth to the point that I have a whole lot of tori.
Tori are an overgrowth of the bones in the jaws. Oh joy, there are three forms - torus palatines, a lump of bone that forms at the midline, on the roof of the mouth - check got that; mandibular torus, a lump that forms on the inside of the lower jaw under the tongue - yep got that; and buccal exostosis, the accumulation of bone between the cheek and jaw and yes present and accounted for. All perfectly benign but sure to get a reaction when someone looks in my mouth.
So my constant teeth grinding has made my jaw bone and hard palate look like something belonging to an alien. I have a highly attractive night guard that stops the grinding so my teeth will stop being ground down to stumps. It also makes me drool so I'm a very pleasant bed fellow.
The night guard may be saving my teeth from becoming stumps but it does little to stop the tori problem. These are there and breeding because I clamp my jaw really tightly in a spasm. I do it day and night and it makes me look grumpy. It also makes my jaw sooooo sore. The Baclofen I take for leg spasms may have helped a bit when I started to take it in the morning as well but it wasn't the death null for the bruxism/clamping. So I take the highly addictive, apparently, Clomazapam. It seems to work well if I also remember to put in my night guard.
Today I have a cold and forgot to wear my guard last night so I'm suffering. So now I have to try the third line of defence - maxigesic - paracetamol and ibuprofen. Hopefully it will help or I may end up with a face only a Klingon mother could love.
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