TENSing Unit and finding my Perfect Bite

So when I finally made my appointment, I was very excited to get started! I have to drive about 2 hours and 40 minutes to my doctor, so they offered to take my molds, TENS, and then find my perfect bite. I had an idea of what to expect at this point, but there are few things to know that weren't entirely described.
When I got there they first took molds of my teeth. I was familiar with this, as I had done it before. It's just a a few seconds of minor discomfort as you wait for the mold to set in your teeth.
Then they will ask you to move to chair. If you have long hair that covers your face, you'll want to bring a hair tie, headband, and/or clips. They need to track the movement of your jaw so they need to stick sensors around your face and on the back of your neck. They also will stick a magnet on the front of your lower jaw. It's not painful, but the accuracy of your posture and your movement is important so try to follow directions. They also put this thing on your head that kind of looks like headgear you would wear with braces, but it's definitely not. This was taking a reading of my jaw movement. I had to sit very straight and they were very meticulous in aligning everything.
My doctor asked me to bite down on my back teeth, which I always find painful and difficult to do because I'm most comfortable holding my jaw open. Then they put small foam cushions in my mouth and asked me to bite down again. This showed how much more effective my muscles would be if I had more height separating my teeth.
After getting a base reading, I was able to sit back in the dental chair that is much more comfortable and they stuck the pads on my jaw joints and the back of my neck for the TENSing portion. The TENS unit shoots electricity into your muscles in a mostly gentle pulse. I wasn't sure what to expect with this, and it happened to be much more intense (at first) than I thought it would be. My initial reaction was, "I can't do this for 1 hour!" I was a bit scared to be left alone with the electricity shooting into my muscles every second. BUT, my doctor was very kind and she showed me how to turn it off it was too much. This helped somewhat and I laid back on the pillow they gave me.
Honestly, once I relaxed and just allowed it to do its thing it actually started to feel good. My muscles had been tense for so long that I started to enjoy it. By the end of the hour my jaw was feeling really lose and it wasn't painful. In fact, it kind of goes a bit numb. So if you're worried about this portion of the treatment, just relax, take a deep breath and hang in there. It just takes a little while to get used to.
After the hour, the TENS machine has erased what they call your "muscle memory." Basically my muscles had been straining so long that they were used to being tense and balled up. By erasing the memory of the muscles, they were now able to find the point of relaxation where my muscles could rest.
At this point they asked me to remain as relaxed as possible. They sat be back into the chair and hooked me up to the headgear and everything. I had to sit up perfectly straight and there were two dental hygienists there to help keep me even.
With my jaw hooked back up to the readings, they turned the TENS unit back on to keep my muscles relaxed and to prevent them from returning to the old position. My doctor asked me to just relax my jaw completely and only to move subtly in the direction on her command.
They then put a soft mold material and laid it on my teeth and had me move my jaw very, very slightly while my doctor watch the readings of my muscles.
The only tricky thing here is remaining completely relaxed until the mold really sets. I was able to get it right after the first try, which I guess doesn't always happen. The problem with having to do it over again is you can start to get tired, so you really want to try and listen carefully and get it done right the first time.
Well that was the end of the visit. They said they would call me in when the orthotic came in. This takes about 2 to 3 weeks.