Has anyone's bruxism been helped by xPAP?

[abigailrivers]

Hi all,

I'm new here. I've been lurking for a while, and I'm impressed with how well-informed you guys are.
I've been reading a lot about the link between nocturnal bruxism (teeth grinding/clenching) and sleep disordered breathing. The hypothesis is that some individuals clench/grind their teeth in response to partial airway collapse, because the bruxism keeps the airway open. In this way, bruxism is a survival mechanism, but one that comes with its own set of problems.
I've been grinding for at least 15 years and have tried everything imaginable to stop the grinding or alleviate the discomfort caused by it. Nothing has worked--not the $1000 mouthguards from the dentist (regular or NTI splints), not magnesium, meditation, yoga, diet changes, etc.
I've finally come to the conclusion that perhaps my bruxism is caused by sleep disordered breathing. I had a sleep study last year but it was crap--not only did they tell me I didn't brux (I have no idea how they overlooked this, because my jaw was really sore, as usual, the following morning), they diagnosed me with narcolepsy (which I am certain I do not have) and offered me stimulants.
I definitely have suffered from unrefreshing sleep for a long time, and my life has been pretty much controlled by depression due to low energy since I was a kid. (I have also sought out every possible means of treatment for the depression, short of electroconvulsive therapy or brain implants, and again, nothing has worked.)
On my own, I've acquired an APAP machine (Resmed S9 Autoset) in the hopes that it would help my unrefreshing sleep and bruxism. I suspect I have UARS rather than full-blown apnea. I'm trying to get used to sleeping with the machine (very difficult, going on a month now and have been able to keep the mask on all night only twice) and to learn to use sleepyhead.
I'm looking for some hope out there. Has anyone experienced relief from bruxism due to xPAP therapy? I'd also like to connect with members who are successfully treating their UARS with xPAP.

[Sheffey]

Has anyone experienced relief from bruxism due to xPAP therapy?

Yes. I was a bad bruxer for years. Once my CPAP therapy was working well, the bruxism went away.

The hypothesis is that some individuals clench/grind their teeth in response to partial airway collapse, because the bruxism keeps the airway open. In this way, bruxism is a survival mechanism,

I doubt that. It seems to be a reflexive action because of the suffering from long apneas. Bruxism certainly was not holding my airway open.

my life has been pretty much controlled by depression due to low energy since I was a kid. (I have also sought out every possible means of treatment for the depression, short of electroconvulsive therapy or brain implants, and again, nothing has worked.)

Wow! They put you through all that when all that was needed was a little forced air.

[abigailrivers]

Thanks for your response, Sheffey! I'm happy to hear that PAP therapy resolved your bruxism.
I hope that all is needed is a little forced air! I've made the decision to try xPAP on my own, out of desperation, as I don't know how else to try to treat the depression/unrefreshing sleep at this point.

[dbreweur]

Granted, I've only been on Auto-PAP for roughly two weeks now, but I can't really say that I've seen any improvement in my bruxism, but that may be due to the mask I'm using (Dreamwear w/ separate chin strap as I alternate between nose breathing and mouth breathing). It's like with the chin strap that I'm clinching worse than ever (That was always more of a problem than grinding). I get to pick up my AirFit F10 on Tuesday, so hopefully when I no longer use the chin strap, I'll be able to see some improvement.

[abigailrivers]

Granted, I've only been on Auto-PAP for roughly two weeks now, but I can't really say that I've seen any improvement in my bruxism, but that may be due to the mask I'm using (Dreamwear w/ separate chin strap as I alternate between nose breathing and mouth breathing). It's like with the chin strap that I'm clinching worse than ever (That was always more of a problem than grinding). I get to pick up my AirFit F10 on Tuesday, so hopefully when I no longer use the chin strap, I'll be able to see some improvement.

dbreweur, I hope it gets better for you. I've been using my APAP for about a week now through the night and I haven't noticed any reduction in the soreness/headaches from grinding yet, either.

[palerider]

Granted, I've only been on Auto-PAP for roughly two weeks now, but I can't really say that I've seen any improvement in my bruxism, but that may be due to the mask I'm using (Dreamwear w/ separate chin strap as I alternate between nose breathing and mouth breathing). It's like with the chin strap that I'm clinching worse than ever (That was always more of a problem than grinding). I get to pick up my AirFit F10 on Tuesday, so hopefully when I no longer use the chin strap, I'll be able to see some improvement.

dbreweur, I hope it gets better for you. I've been using my APAP for about a week now through the night and I haven't noticed any reduction in the soreness/headaches from grinding yet, either.

just using it doesn't mean it's adjusted properly to give you effective treatment. it's like using a pair of glasses that aren't ground right, you still can't see.

[MrGrumpy]

Bruxism was one of the problems I had for years that was one of the first problems to go away when I was put on CPAP in 2007. I used to wake up with sore jaws in the morning and a bad headache. When I went on full pressure CPAP and got the right mask (full face mask) bruxism disappeared.

Unfortunately, my CPAP therapy fell apart in 2013 due to a tonsillectomy and my mild/moderate OSA is now sub optimally treated. I now have bruxism again and recently had several gold crowns put in to replace teeth I have cracked due to bruxism...its that bad again!

[abigailrivers]

Granted, I've only been on Auto-PAP for roughly two weeks now, but I can't really say that I've seen any improvement in my bruxism, but that may be due to the mask I'm using (Dreamwear w/ separate chin strap as I alternate between nose breathing and mouth breathing). It's like with the chin strap that I'm clinching worse than ever (That was always more of a problem than grinding). I get to pick up my AirFit F10 on Tuesday, so hopefully when I no longer use the chin strap, I'll be able to see some improvement.

dbreweur, I hope it gets better for you. I've been using my APAP for about a week now through the night and I haven't noticed any reduction in the soreness/headaches from grinding yet, either.

just using it doesn't mean it's adjusted properly to give you effective treatment. it's like using a pair of glasses that aren't ground right, you still can't see.

true- but i've been monitoring my data on sleepyhead and my AHI is <1 and my flow limitations scored by the machine are negligible and the shape of my flow curve doesn't seem to be indicative of flow limitations, either - so i'm not sure where to take it. maybe try a higher pressure just for the hell of it?

[abigailrivers]

Bruxism was one of the problems I had for years that was one of the first problems to go away when I was put on CPAP in 2007. I used to wake up with sore jaws in the morning and a bad headache. When I went on full pressure CPAP and got the right mask (full face mask) bruxism disappeared.

Unfortunately, my CPAP therapy fell apart in 2013 due to a tonsillectomy and my mild/moderate OSA is now sub optimally treated. I now have bruxism again and recently had several gold crowns put in to replace teeth I have cracked due to bruxism...its that bad again!

I can't imagine how frustrating that must be- to have solved such an onerous problem and then have it return... Do you know why you haven't been able to get the CPAP treatment back to an optimal level?

[abigailrivers]

Granted, I've only been on Auto-PAP for roughly two weeks now, but I can't really say that I've seen any improvement in my bruxism, but that may be due to the mask I'm using (Dreamwear w/ separate chin strap as I alternate between nose breathing and mouth breathing). It's like with the chin strap that I'm clinching worse than ever (That was always more of a problem than grinding). I get to pick up my AirFit F10 on Tuesday, so hopefully when I no longer use the chin strap, I'll be able to see some improvement.

dbreweur, I hope it gets better for you. I've been using my APAP for about a week now through the night and I haven't noticed any reduction in the soreness/headaches from grinding yet, either.

just using it doesn't mean it's adjusted properly to give you effective treatment. it's like using a pair of glasses that aren't ground right, you still can't see.

a thought i've had is that maybe even though my data looks good, i clench/grind right away in response to even the smallest flow limitation - so my clenching would preclude the machine picking up any flow limitations, since they're effectively prevented by the clench response before they become much of anything? does that seem to be a reasonable hypothesis? i don't know...

[palerider]

a thought i've had is that maybe even though my data looks good, i clench/grind right away in response to even the smallest flow limitation - so my clenching would preclude the machine picking up any flow limitations, since they're effectively prevented by the clench response before they become much of anything? does that seem to be a reasonable hypothesis? i don't know...

it's also possible that your sleeping self has to get used to the new 'not choking to death' all night situation... I don't claim to know much about bruxism, just that it's a common side effect of SA.

[abigailrivers]

a thought i've had is that maybe even though my data looks good, i clench/grind right away in response to even the smallest flow limitation - so my clenching would preclude the machine picking up any flow limitations, since they're effectively prevented by the clench response before they become much of anything? does that seem to be a reasonable hypothesis? i don't know...

it's also possible that your sleeping self has to get used to the new 'not choking to death' all night situation... I don't claim to know much about bruxism, just that it's a common side effect of SA.

well, the weird thing about me is that I tested negative for sleep apnea in 2 tests (one home, one lab) but i am so frustrated by the bruxism/depression/lack of refreshing sleep that i've pursued APAP on my own, just on the off chance that it might help- so i don't know that I ever had apneas, i certainly have never been aware of any or been told by bed partners that i'm doing it- although i do snore some, so, who knows?

[JimW159]

well, the weird thing about me is that I tested negative for sleep apnea in 2 tests (one home, one lab) but i am so frustrated by the bruxism/depression/lack of refreshing sleep that i've pursued APAP on my own, just on the off chance that it might help- so i don't know that I ever had apneas, i certainly have never been aware of any or been told by bed partners that i'm doing it- although i do snore some, so, who knows?

You need to make two more major investments to come to terms with what is happening:
1) your time and commitment to understanding - this costs you only what you feel it is worth
2) a means of viewing the information and quantifying and qualifying it - fortunately, with SleepyHead, this costs you just what 1, above, costs - it is free, thus it costs you nothing but how you value it is up to you.
SH will show you, over time, what is happening with your breathing - unfortunately, it won't show you anything about the bruxism (AFAIK), but, it will show a lot.

[abigailrivers]

well, the weird thing about me is that I tested negative for sleep apnea in 2 tests (one home, one lab) but i am so frustrated by the bruxism/depression/lack of refreshing sleep that i've pursued APAP on my own, just on the off chance that it might help- so i don't know that I ever had apneas, i certainly have never been aware of any or been told by bed partners that i'm doing it- although i do snore some, so, who knows?

You need to make two more major investments to come to terms with what is happening:
1) your time and commitment to understanding - this costs you only what you feel it is worth
2) a means of viewing the information and quantifying and qualifying it - fortunately, with SleepyHead, this costs you just what 1, above, costs - it is free, thus it costs you nothing but how you value it is up to you.
SH will show you, over time, what is happening with your breathing - unfortunately, it won't show you anything about the bruxism (AFAIK), but, it will show a lot.

Thanks Jim- I am definitely committed to understanding this- I spend literally all my free time researching it and trying to learn about it.
I am using sleepyhead and my breathing seems to be fine.

[phoebe368]

I too suspected that I had some sort of sleep disorder since I my sleep was always unrefreshing and I felt tired during the daytime. I also bruxed so bad I would get migraines. I had 2 sleep studies which came back negative, just listed snoring and unexplained arousals. I then went to the world famous Stanford Sleep Disorders clinic and was finally properly diagnosed with OSA - Respiratory index of 14 and many flow limitations. I tried the cpap route which helped with the bruxing and then finally had surgery. I am young and thin but suspect my sleep apnea was caused by receding jaws which was exacerbated by extractive orthondontics. My first suggestion to you is to get properly diagnosed because without being properly diagnosed doctors and insurance companies won't take you very seriously. I don't know what kind of insurance you have but try to get your sleep study done at Stanford as they have better, more sensitive testing equipment than other sleep labs. I also recommend reading this article by Dr. STeven Park on UARS:

http://doctorstevenpark.com/sleep-apnea ... e-syndrome