Orthotic Update #2

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

So I got my orthotic on Monday, November 12th, so it has almost been a month since getting it and it is a still a constant process (and improvement!!). It wasn’t until around November 26th (give or take a day) that I was completely pain free in my teeth from the orthotic. It was getting somewhat painful for my teeth. I was feeling pressure in my teeth that would travel around to different teeth pretty much every other day. I stuck with it because I was happy with how it was holding my jaw forward and relieving the pain in my joints. So I decided to just keep wearing it until my follow up appointment. I felt that over all it was helping my jaw.
At my follow up visit on November 28th, which was just last week, I went in for another hour of TENSing. This time I actually fell asleep during it! Which I would've thought could never happen! haha. Just because it's such a weird feeling. I think I was just tired enough from a long holiday weekend with family. I took a long drive down to Long Island and pretty much house hopped and didn't really get as much rest and relaxation as I was planning! Still it was a lot of fun. We got to see Newsies in the city, which is a childhood favorite of mine and the Broadway play didn't disappoint!
Anywho, back to my orthotic! So after the TENSing my doctor put a piece of paper that seemed to have some kind of ink on it and she asked me to chew on it. This left marks on the orthotic and she took it away to file it down.
The reason I had to update today, is because last night I started to notice that my jaw wanted to slide forward so that the orthotic was no longer fitting. I started getting somewhat nervous about it. The idea of having to make a whole new appliance and start all over again sent me into a mild panic.
So, I called up my doctor and she said that she had filed down the appliance to allow my jaw to slide forward. She said this was to be expected, which I was very relieved to hear. Right now I'm resting my front teeth on the "front teeth" of the orthotic. Not sure if I described the orthotic, but basically it sits on my lower teeth and adds height and then sits into my upper teeth holding my jaw a bit lower and more forward than my actual teeth, which pretty much instantly has caused relief to my muscles.

Remember how I mentioned how I had some asthetic goals in mind too? Well I'm so excited because where my jaw wants to fall now is so much better looking than even with the orthotic! YAY! I know most other people wouldn't notice this subtle difference, but for me it's just so amazing. Plus, it just relieves my muscles that much more. My next appointment isn't until January, but I might have to stop in sooner than that to have my doctor file down the front portion of the orthotic, it's just not the most comfortable place that I'm resting it on right now and it's kind of distracting when I'm sitting at my desk trying to get things done...either way I can't complain with the results I've seen in just a few weeks!!