I like to mold the teeth guard to my lower teeth because I sleep with my head raised and gravity helps keep the guard in place. Also it just seems more natural to me. The other reason, which I mentioned before, is that when facing down the teeth guard's rim provides a little ledge that helps keep my FFM from riding up. It's hard to picture but once it's in your mouth it'll become apparent.yaconsult wrote:Would you please post the tips? I just ordered one to try and I suspect we're not the only two interested in the subject.
Why do you find it's better molded to the lower teeth?
For most mouths the upper set of teeth is wider and reaches further back (so they fit over the lower teeth) and therefore the Doctor's teeth guard is designed somewhat bigger to fit the upper teeth. I find that if you use a sharp razor knife you can trim off (before molding) both back ends by about a 3/16s of an inch. Just slice them right off... it's take some effort and be sure to do it on a wood or plastic cutting board because the last half of the cut can be sudden. They'll be some rough edges but don't worry about it since the boiling hot water you immerse it in will round everything off very nicely.
Once the cuts are done, put it in your mouth and note how it fits or if it jabs the back part of your jaw - cut more off the ends but only a little at a time until you get it feeling comfortable in your mouth. Next follow the instructions on the package for boiling and fitting. While the teeth guard is still semi-soft from boiling, I like to open my mouth after initially clamping down and squeeze the all the sides of the silicone of the teeth guard back in a bit and then bite down at about half intensity one final time. I discovered that the teeth guard tends to flatten too much if you just crank down on it and leave it to solidify like that. The package sez you can redo the boiling water step one more final time - I've done that and found that it works. Even a third time provides reasonable results.
Other than that, I put it in a soapy solution to soak for an hour every morning then soak it in plain tap water for awhile to rinse it... if you do it right it should NEVER smell or taste funny. Good luck and let me know how it works. Final note: it may take a day or two, or even a week to get used to the feel but once you do the device is really neat. I buy them on Amazon and they are anywhere from half to three-quarters the price that drug stores charge.