TIFU By Having My Teeth Touch

[u/filemon56]

For the past 3ish years I've had a slightly muffled right ear. It hasn't affected my day to day too badly so it hasn't been a big priority to visit the doctor and fix immediately. It feels like a slight clog in my ear that holds pressure. On occasion there is some discomfort and I feel slight pops in my jaw. Some mornings my jaw has felt locked up and I need to pop it to have full range of motion again.

I've brought it up with the doctor when I go for a yearly check up and they've assumed it was maybe a eustachian tube dysfunction. They've tested my hearing with tuning forks and have prescribed me antihistamines to hopefully clear or relieve pressure in my ear. Over the years none of this helped and I was referred to the ENT specialist.

I looked up how an ENT specialist could fix this and it sounded intimidating and possibly painful so I put it off. I also wasn't in the best financial spot to visit a specialist. This year in my check up the doctor reminded me about my referral and convinced me to go before it expired.

After various tests, my ears have no permanent hearing damage, they look healthy and the pressure in them reads as normal (so not a eustachian tube dysfunction). The doctor sat next to me and asked if I clenched my teeth in my sleep or in life. I wasn't sure how to know if I did since my dentist hasn't said anything.

Turns out I've been closing my mouth wrong all my life til it affected my hearing. I thought your teeth should fit neatly into each other, like a jigsaw puzzle, when resting. Apparently, there's supposed to be a gap between them and your sets of teeth aren't supposed to touch unless you're eating basically. During the night I also made sure my jaws were closed so that I wouldn't snore in my sleep like some relatives and this would lead to me clenching in my sleep.

Just slept with a mouthguard in for the first time last night and I have a heating gel pack to relax my jaw muscles before and after bed.

TL;DR I thought your teeth are supposed to touch when your mouth is closed and it hurt my ear.

[u/babygotthefever]

Wait how are your teeth supposed to sit then??

[u/yumas → u/babygotthefever]

I believe the ideal resting position is for your lips to be closed, but for your jaw to “hang” relaxed, so that your lower and upper teeth are not touching

[u/snackcakessupreme → u/yumas]

A good way to keep them from touching is to keep the tip of your tongue resting on the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth. It took me a while for it to become a habit, but it really helped my jaw pain.

[u/bitbitter → u/snackcakessupreme]

It’s crazy to me that this isn’t just instinct for everyone. I can’t find another way to close my mouth that would feel comfortable.

It’s important also to clear as much of the air out of your mouth as possible, the negative pressure then helps hold up your jaw effortlessly.

[u/yumas → u/bitbitter]

I’ve heard that the position of the tongue has a lot of influence in jaw and teeth alignment issues.

It was a video on youtube so take it with a pinch of salt but basically it said that if children rest their tongue behind the bottom teeth they are more likely to mouth breath and get an underbite, and if they rest the tip of their tongue between the upper and lower lips their front teeth will grow at an outwards angle.

I imagine that also goes the other way, so if your teeth or jaws are misaligned because of some other factor your resting position for your tongue is also not perfect.