Re: Braces pain - how long does it last? - denakb

[Guest guest]

I'm not sure whether or not meditating will help with the clenching

or not. But I've been doing a lot of practice for the past 6 months,

and I find it beneficial.

Just sitting quietly and allowing the experience to unfold can help.

Experiencing just the pain, not trying to change it, add anything to

it or take anything away from it. Just sitting and letting it be.

Often what you will find is that the pain changes, it's not the

same, it's variable. I think part of this is because we tend to get

upset and tense when we are in pain, if you can become more aware of

this, it's possible to release that and feel just the core of pain.

In a way, you can become more accepting of the pain. If you try to

force it out of your awareness, you actually give more energy to it.

But if you just let it be, it can fade into the background. Of

course, this depends on the magnitude of the pain, but it is

something that can be developed over time.

There's lots of different techniques for learning meditation, but

one of the best I found was a simple mindfulness technique

(vipassana), paying attention to the breath, at the point where it

enters and exits the nostrils. One tries to remain aware of the

breath, if your attention drifts away, gently bring it back to the

breath. There's an excellent book called " Mindfulness in Plain

English " (by Bhante H. Gunaratana, Wisdom Publications) that is a

good introduction to mindfulness meditation.

I learned this style of meditation through a course

called " Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction " or MBSR, originally

developed and still taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who runs the Pain &

Stress Clinic at U of Massachussetts Hospital (he's got a number of

books and tapes out). About 25 of us did an 8 week program, it was

really interesting how we were all affected by it. I still practice

once a month with the grads of the program, and daily on my own.

There are no rules in meditation, but it's recommended by many that

you sit daily, preferably at the same time. The amount of time you

sit is not as important as regularly sitting.

Now, I'm not a fan of drugs at all, but I do take a low dose (10 mg

at night) of amitryptyline (anti-depressant) for sleep disturbances -

that is a drug that is also given as a muscle relaxant, for

clenching. You might try speaking to your regular physician about it.

Hope that helps,

> As for the pain.. I'm going thru the same thing as you in

regards

> to braces. I got my top braces back at the end of November and

just

> recently got the bottoms put on. The pain is always there to a

> certain extent - the only time it's bad enough to take something

is

> right after they tighten them up Other than that, it's

something

> I'm aware of ,,, but not something that seriously hinders me in

any

> way

>

> I think it's like someone else said,, after having your teeth

> stationary for so long, then all of a sudden having all the

pressure,

> pulling, tugging, moving, etc., you're going to notice it Plus

on

> top of it, we're adults, we recover just a little bit slower then

> kids/teenagers/etc

>

> Another factor for me is that I one clench while sleeping, which

> again puts pressure on my teeth. And with the braces, they're

> all " connected " so-to-speak.. so when I'm clenching my back teeth,

> it's putting pressure on all the others too - hence my pain.

>

> Recently started meditating though in hopes to alleviate the

> clenching - anyone have any experience or ideas in this area?