Hi Dr Glaister,

I would be really grateful for your opinion on this please. I am a 27 year old woman and I think I am suffering from perhaps not bruxism, but teeth clenching. I can feel myself wanting to clench my teeth together during the day, and in the mornings when I wake up my back teeth feel sort of tender. I don’t think I have a particularly sore jaw though. I have been told I have an open bite (my front teeth don’t meet but the back and sides do), and that there are signs of clenching/grinding in my mouth, namely a sort of frilly pattern on the edges of my tongue, ridges on the insides of my cheeks and maybe slight wear on my teeth. I also suffer from frequent headaches, and a bit of back and neckpain, However I spend time sitting at a computer too, so there are confounding factors. I think I have been suffering from this problem on and off for years, with its severity varying (at times I have not been aware of it at all). Getting to the point what I want to know is what kind of device you would reccommend for wearing at night for this? I had a soft guard made years ago, but I felt this made my teeth even more tender in the morning, and it was uneven in height so the back teeth seemed even closer together in comparison to the front ones (although I apprecaite that it still must have been protecting my teeth). Is a hard guard likely to be better as I would not be so inclided to clench down on this? What do you think of the NTI? Can any of these devices cause permanent changes in bite alignment, and do you know of any adverse effects these can cause if worn for long periods of time? Many thanks for your help.
P.S. I read another of your posts and thought I should mention I am also an ex-citalopram user and an ex-vegetarian!