I am a 26 year old male and I have been suffering from migraines since I was about 13 years old. I have had severe neck and shoulder pains even though it seemed there was no cause for them. Sometimes the pain was so bad that no matter how many pain killers I took the pain wouldn’t go away. I started to think that I had chronic back problems that were causing this so I decided to see a chiropractor which helped a little but the pain still kept coming back so then I thought it was my bed. So I bought a king size chiropractic bed for a few thousand but that again only helped for a short time. I’ve tried acupuncture and massage therapy but they were only temporary solutions to my migraine, back and neck problems. I figured the pain was maybe coming from my neck so I fell for those ads on TV for a new pillow that contours to your neck. Well that seemed to have worked very well actually so I figured the problem was over, I just have to take my pillow everywhere I sleep. Problem over, I thought, my neck was just different.
I have reason to believe my past is where it all started. I’ve had 4 dentists in total and as a young child I had perfectly straight teeth but I liked candy, what child doesn’t. I developed a few cavities and had to see my first dentist. Boy I hated the dentist back then, and those needles were the worst. I had one cavity, then a year went by and then another cavity and so on and so forth. All I did know is that I had a very nice smile and perfectly straight teeth. Once I hit 13 I stopped having cavities and haven’t had one since but I did notice I was grinding my teeth a lot because I was waking up with what seemed to be sand in my mouth. When I later looked in my mouth I noticed that my teeth were on top of each other not like they should be where the back teeth are a little farther back from the top teeth. Darn this getting older I had thought, must be my jaw growing more and me becoming a man, maybe it’s supposed be like that.
My second dentist told me that it could be all from stress that I’m grinding my teeth but it didn’t look like much damage so if it gets worse I should come back and he would make a boxing splint for me. I thought oh no not a mouth guard! I don’t think I can sleep with something in my mouth. It will keep me up, I already have back pains. So I told my mom it’s just stress from all the home work.
Years passed; I found a job, made money, got a great girlfriend, but my upper teeth kept disappearing slowly still. I went to the dentist a few times, but only for checkups and cleanings. I didn’t notice I was grinding my teeth at night anymore and I didn’t do it during the day and if I did I stopped it instantly. My girlfriend noticed it a few times while I slept that I was grinding my teeth but I stopped doing it eventually altogether. That’s it! I thought. I was a stressful teen after all even though I never really felt I was stressed. I thought one day I would go get a second opinion on my teeth from a dentist in Victoria. He saw me and checked my teeth. He said I lost about 4mm off my top teeth from grinding and that it would cost thousands of dollars to fix them now. He also presumed that my jaw just adjusted over time and it was all a part of growing up and stress. He recommended getting a boxing splint as well. I said I don’t grind my teeth anymore so I guess the damage is done. I just have to save up to eventually fix my teeth.
So I waited a few years and now I’m 26 and I find out from my girlfriend that I’m still grinding my teeth while I sleep. I went to a dentist in Winnipeg and they told me that because of the way I bite they would have to raise my bottom back teeth to make room for my front top teeth to be filled in so that I don’t break them off. They said that the cost would be even more then the first quote from the dentist in Victoria. Well that’s way too rich for my blood! I decided to finally get a boxing splint before all my teeth are gone and also get a cleaning. I started talking to the dental hygienist while she worked on cleaning my teeth. We talked about how she saw a great dentist called Dr. Fleisher which helped her with her teeth in a huge way. I was very impressed with what she had to say and decided to go see the dentist that she spoke of and postpone getting my mouth guard at this place for now.
I decided to see this specialist and from the moment I got there it was different from a regular dental office. For instance, the chart questions referred to migraines, neck, shoulder, back pains and to when these problems had started. I let them know I was about 13 when my problems started with my neck and back pains, but wondered why that has anything to really do with my teeth. All I really wanted was to get a boxing splint to stop my teeth from getting even worse. Dr. Fleisher was amazing! He explained everything to me. How grinding my teeth was causing all my migraines, neck and back pains in the morning. Dr. Fleisher noticed that my teeth were very off which caused my jaw to readjust because of it. He noticed that my fillings were too high from when I had my cavities filled and decided to lower them along with a few other teeth. This was the reason all my pain started happening just after going to the dentist the first time. So it seems that the original dentist wrecked my teeth by causing them to want to grind off the filling that was put in, but since the filling wouldn’t grind off, my front teeth did. Dr. Fleisher didn’t use any freezing agents but there was no pain through the entire time he worked on my teeth. I kind of thought that he must of grinded away too many teeth because it felt like my bite now was way off and crooked. But he said it takes time for your jaw to reset because of the built up fluid in the joints from all the years of biting wrong. He made me a boxing splint for when I sleep and sent me home until my next appointment. All that week my jaw was adjusting and I started noticing that my jaw was going back to where it was suppose to be. My bottom and top teeth weren’t touching in the front anymore and my bottom teeth were a little farther back and it felt really nice. Also, it was Dr. Fleisher’s idea to stop using my pillow so I could see the difference in how I felt. All my migraines, neck and back pains were gone, it was a miracle. Dr. Fleisher continued to adjust my jaw for a few weeks and fill in the places that where grinded off. I became a little emotional because I never thought that this was going to be a life changing experience.
– Matthew K., Winnipeg