Grit Your Teeth

I’m having trouble concentrating on writing this morning, because I am a teeth grinder. I grind my teeth at night. I am too stubborn to get a mouth guard, despite the pleas of more than one of my dentists to get one. I just don’t see myself being able to fall asleep with giant blobs of plastic in my mouth. (and more than I need comfort, I need my sleep) I hate the look and smell of long lines of saliva. I have PTSD from my retainer-wearing days. I constantly lost my retainer. One time my dad was mowing the lawn, and came into the house angrily, because he almost mowed over my retainer. I have no idea how it got out to the lawn. I blamed my dog.

So, now I have a dull jaw ache, that seems to shooting down to my stomach and up to my head. The only words that I can think to write are “Ow! Ouch! Ugh!”

“Chew on this: Human teeth can detect a grain of sand or grit 10 microns in diameter. A micron is 1/25,000 of an inch. If you shrank a Coke can until it was the diameter of a human hair, the letter O in the product name would be about 10 microns across.” – Mary Roach