"please keep me updated about oximeters "
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Biting my tongue
Hi all. I joined a few years ago when I was first diagnosed with OSA but I haven't visited the site in a while. I faithfully use my machine every night and for my occasional nap. Lately, I am waking up biting my tongue...really hard. It hurts! Is this common? How do I stop it? I actually did this when I first got my machine and asked my doctor about it and he told me he never heard of anyone doing that. I stopped, but now I have started biting again and harder than ever.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by K. S. on
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I am concerned that your OSA is not being fully resolved. For me, I was biting my tongue before treatment, grinding my teeth, breaking off crowns, etc...This tends to mean that you are still struggling to breathe and startle. Either you or a tech should pull off your numbers from your machine or talk to your doctor. If you have access to some data on your machine, you could correlate the biting with your AHI, etc...
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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on
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Julia, could this be from stress and anxiety, or like bruxism- ? You may try and athletic mouthpiece though I have not idea if this can work- it can at least be inexpensive. Also perhaps a light sedative in a small dose may help.
Good luck, keep us posted.
Mary
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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Could be. Like most, I have a fair share of stress. I woke up with my jaw actually being sore this morning from clenching so hard. Before cpap, I am sure I didn't grind my teeth, I was too busy snoring with my mouth wide open! Sometimes, I am really biting down hard on my tongue and I wake up from the pain. At least I am sleeping better with cpap, lol
Mary Z said:Julia, could this be from stress and anxiety, or like bruxism- ? You may try and athletic mouthpiece though I have not idea if this can work- it can at least be inexpensive. Also perhaps a light sedative in a small dose may help.
Good luck, keep us posted.
Mary
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Julia, I think this is the time to see a dentist and maybe your GP to deal with strss.
Good luck,
Mary
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I used to be a teeth grinder, until my dentist fitted me with a very light mouthguard. Take it from me, you can do serious damage to your teeth---I spent over $7k due to cracked and chipped teeth. Now that I have CPAP, not sure I need the guard, but I still wear it to preserve my dental investment.
Again, review your data if your CPAP numbers show your being treated optimally. Bruxism is a sign of nightly stress. Yes, it could be just general stress, but I would rule out the CPAP first and at the same time, get that mouthguard from your dentist.
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Permalink Reply by Oya Seiichiro on
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Julia, in our experience, your facial alignment is slightly out due to imbalance of facial muscles, so brain send signal to your jaw to clenching or grinding of teeth while you're sleeping in order to make your facial alignment to be straight.Let me put it another way, due to mouth breathing means to stay opening mouth in asleep by weakness of cheek muscles or sagging face, your brain can't take a rest with shortage of oxygen and imbalance of autonomic nerves (sympathetic nerve > Para-sympathetic nerve), even though using CPAP.It will take for approx. 2~4 weeks to change mouth breathing into nose breathing and also stop clenching or grinding of teeth, biting your tongue as well(if you'd like to know reason why biting your tongue, let me know by return, I'm willing to tell you with actual example ) by simple exercise for 3 min. each and 4 times per day. If you can't imagine what talking about and those results, please see http://www.liptrainer.com/main/testimonials.htm
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No, no teeth grinding. This is kind of strange, but after I got the note above about facial alignment, I have consciously tried to shift my jaw as I am drifting off to sleep. I do think my jaw is out of line. Since I started doing that, I haven't bitten my tongue once. And it didn't cost me $84 :-). I will check with my dentist next time I see him.
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