Sensitive teeth?

[RogerSC]

A few months ago, I was noticing that I had developed a sensitive spot amongst my teeth, cold in particular was really painful. Correlated it with my cpap use, and have taken care of it by consciously working on not clenching my teeth at night (as much as one can), and keeping my teeth slightly apart during the day. Seems that I was so intent on not having mask leaks that I was clenching my teeth at night, and keeping them together during the day, without noticing. For about the last month I've been concentrating on doing the opposite, and that sensitive tooth or teeth is not longer sensitive, back to normal. And this has had no effect on my cpap leaks, as far as I can tell *smile*.

Thought I'd share in case anyone else is experiencing this...on the other hand, I might just be an oddity in this one *smile*.

[freightbike]

I use an athletic teeth guard to keep from grinding my teeth. I find I have to use chap stick lip balm on my lips to keep saliva from burning the skin in the corners of my mouth. But the grinding and sensitivity issues went away.

[mgaggie]

I have a custom fitted guard for my teeth grinding, I used to grind the teeth so much that I've worn grooves at the back of my front teeth. I haven't tried my guard with the cpap yet (I've only had it just under two months), but when I get, ore settled with my machine.

Roger I found that pushing my tongue against my front teeth creates a decent mouth seal without having to clench the jaw

[RogerSC]

I have a custom fitted guard for my teeth grinding, I used to grind the teeth so much that I've worn grooves at the back of my front teeth. I haven't tried my guard with the cpap yet (I've only had it just under two months), but when I get, ore settled with my machine.

Roger I found that pushing my tongue against my front teeth creates a decent mouth seal without having to clench the jaw

Yes, I didn't need to clench my teeth, that was totally unconscious, not something that I decided that I'd do. I already keep my tongue in position so that if I open my mouth when on cpap, nothing comes out *smile*. The jaw clenching was a problematic extra that I added without thinking about it *smile*.

I did the jaw position correction consciously and purposely so that I wouldn't have to use a night guard. If I couldn't have fixed this by doing what I did, I had planned to use a night guard. Since I'm lready using a cpap mask, I didn't want something in my mouth as well, unless I absolutely had to.

[yulcdn]

I have been on CPAP for about 15 months. I push my tongue against my front teeth and I have never had a seal/leak problem...instead I know have a large space between my upper front teeth and will end up spending thousands of dollars for braces. My tongue has managed to push my teeth forward...Hard to believe that my grandkids and I will be both in braces at the same time.

[Jaylee]

I switched to a full face mask. Now I don't clench my teeth and if my jaw falls open it is no big deal with the FFM. It really helped.

[Denial Dave]

As usual, I have been floating down the river of DENIAL and refused to believe that I really had a deviated septum.

So I tried the trick of putting my tongue on the roof of my mouth to see if I could move away from my FFM mask.... After just a week, 2 of my front teeth began to ache. My hunch is that it was from the pressure my tongue put on them.

I'm back to sleeping with my mouth open.

no doubt about it, I'm a Full Face Mack person!

[deerslayer]

Roger,
have you had the sensitive area x rayed ? a definite red flag.
Speaking from experience- a redman user for 30 years/pack a day. i stoped Christmas of 99 when told i had pre cancerous areas on cheeks. i have severe exposed roots showing , plus after being discharged from AF went 12 years without seeing dentist(big mistake) ended up with 3 root canals. now go every year for cleaning and eval. from time to time i get some sensitivity. One huge issue with cpap is dry mouth you must guard against. was just advised to try Biotene mouth rinse before turning in to add moisture. am using a sample now. i wish someone had put me on to flossing before i suffered those root canals. for sure i am not one of those oral hygiene fanatics . i brush before turning in period. didn't mean to rant but dentists & dental $$$ SUCK
P.S. excess cpap pressure will also cause lip flutters & increased leak data

[RogerSC]

Roger,
have you had the sensitive area x rayed ? a definite red flag.
Speaking from experience- a redman user for 30 years/pack a day. i stoped Christmas of 99 when told i had pre cancerous areas on cheeks. i have severe exposed roots showing , plus after being discharged from AF went 12 years without seeing dentist(big mistake) ended up with 3 root canals. now go every year for cleaning and eval. from time to time i get some sensitivity. One huge issue with cpap is dry mouth you must guard against. was just advised to try Biotene mouth rinse before turning in to add moisture. am using a sample now. i wish someone had put me on to flossing before i suffered those root canals. for sure i am not one of those oral hygiene fanatics . i brush before turning in period. didn't mean to rant but dentists & dental $$$ SUCK
P.S. excess cpap pressure will also cause lip flutters & increased leak data

Yes, I should have mentioned, I went to the dentist first about this, got my teeth cleaned and examined. They x-rayed the area, and could find nothing dental (of course) that could be causing this. In fact, I'm kind of disappointed that my dentist didn't suggest teeth clenching at night as a possible cause, since I had to find that from my research. That gave me more time for experiencing the pain, while I was trying to out what the causes might be *sigh*. And I also found that this is a common enough problem that there's a lot on the internet about it (teeth clenching and sensitivity).

Thanks for the warning about dry mouth, something to watch out for! I also had a long period of not seeing a dentist, after college, that I paid a price for as well. In retrospect, not a good idea. Now I am an oral hygene fanatic, flossing every day and using a rubber-tipped gum device every other day. TMI, most likely *smile*, but I decided that I really wanted to keep my teeth for as long as I can. Never had to have a root canal, hope that continues.

[jencat824]

Read this post, it contains some helpful info:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88912&p=816184#p816184

If I had known to get a retainer early on, I wouldn't be getting braces now.

Jen