Will Oralift help to stop clenching and grinding during day time and night time (click to see more)

If you wear a mouthguard at night to stop you clenching or grinding your teeth at night, or if you have any other parafunctional habits, you should seriously consider Oralift.  Although Oralift is designed to address and delay signs of facial aging, many people have reported that it has helped them reduce or stop this habit.

Parafunctional Habits

What are parafunctional habits? These are repetitive behaviours that target the oral structures which include digit sucking, tongue thrusting, bruxism, mouth breathing and nail biting.

Traditional Methods

Mouthguards help some people to stop their clenching/grinding habit but are really designed to protect your teeth. In some cases they can make your habit worse. Some drugs can also make your clenching worse. We must always remember that clenching and grinding your teeth is a habit. There are some triggers that start the habit, but you can set up triggers to counteract these. Oralift trains you to stop your habit and sets up triggers in your brain that counteract the triggers which start the clenching habit. Oralift is a helping hand, but only you can stop the habit.

The same is also true for orthodontic retainers that cover the top of the teeth. These can also make parafunctional habits worse. 

Combining Modalities

Oralift is a daytime treatment so would not interfere with your mouthguard wear. However, if your mouthguard is to help with your clenching habit, you may find that you no longer need it, as Oralift is an excellent tool to help stop clenching. Similarly if you are having Botox in your muscles to try and relax them and reduce the force applied to teeth when clenching, you may find that you no longer need this when you start using Oralift.

Modified Programme

People who clench usually have very tense muscles and must go very slowly with the use of Oralift and look out for signs of overuse. Wearing it more does not always give better results but can make things worse. Please join our Facebook group (Oralift Community) and read Audrey’s thread. 

For serious clenchers we recommend this:

1. Oralift was designed to address and reduce the signs of facial aging. That is its primary aim, but it can also help people to stop parafunctioning.

2. If stopping parafuntioning is your main objective, then there are a few other things you have to do. Btw this will also give you better results for the primary objective which is to address and delay the signs of facial aging.

•   Keep a diary of the times you find yourself clenching in the day. This should be done while you are at home or work.
•  A pattern should emerge, and you should be able to identify the triggers that start you parafunctioning.
•   Use some sticky labels and place them near the places where you find yourself parafunctioning. These should then remind you not to parafunction when you approach these areas. Remember to change the colours of the stickers every two weeks or so, otherwise you may get used to them and ignore them.
• If it is certain thoughts that trigger your clenching, you should learn to counteract these with new pleasant and positive triggers e.g. thinking of walking by the sea, or a lovely holiday experience.
•  Hopefully the trigger that you have set up in your brain that tells you tooth contact is not necessary for normal function, can also help stop your night time parafunctional habit.
•   Next, keep a diary of when your teeth touch during a day. If they touch when swallowing, practice a relaxed swallow with the tip of your tongue behind your two front teeth and lips together. This should be done until you are confident your teeth do not touch when you swallow.
•  Keep taking photographs at least twice a week to see the improvements on your facial features. It is very important that you can see the changes. This will help you to realise that it is possible to stop the habit of parafunctioning.