Get a Grip

Last night something terrible happened. I was out with friends and suddenly I got this excruciating pain in my jaw. I went over to a mirror and suddenly needed to spit out a lot of blood. It was very thick and congealed and a dark red/ black, I felt like I was choking on it. After a while the blood stopped coming and I was able to examine my mouth in the mirror. To my utter shock. All of my teeth on the upper left side of my jaw had cracked off, leaving 4 or 5 of my teeth just hanging in my mouth on the wire on my braces. The root of the teeth were still imbedded in my gum. I was totally shocked and didn't know what the hell to do. I rang my dentist but they couldn't seem to understand what was wrong and kept telling me to come in tomorrow. Then I started being sick and again, there seemed to be blood everywhere.

I suddenly sat bolt up right in darkness, absolutely dripped wet to the core, hair plastered over my face. I reached my hand up to my mouth. It was just a nightmare.

WTF???

Seriously, it was like the most horrible dream I have had in a long while. I think the reason I had it is firstly, because I think about my teeth a lot and secondly, yesterday I was thinking about how i was going to be away for nearly 3 weeks and what would I do if the braces broke of something, right in my last few weeks and I couldn't get it sorted.

Thirdly, i think it's because of how tight the elastics make my jaw. I sometimes find myself sitting working or driving or something and I'm actually clenching my jaw very tightly, teeth pressed hard against one another and i have to remind myself to try and relax my mouth. I imagine last night i was grinding my teeth so hard that's that is why I had the dream.

I went through a patch some years ago that I use to grind my teeth so aggressively that I broke a tooth and after that my dentist made me wear a teeth guard at night. Apparently it can be caused by stress, at that time it probably was. On this occassion, I blame it on the orthodontic work.

Just gotta grin and bear it for a few more weeks.