3 ms·
OK. Question about this. Microplastics have measurable negative effects on mammalian brains. That's been shown recently. I've never microwaved or cooked anyth
by noduerme 3y ago
OK. Question about this.
Microplastics have measurable negative effects on mammalian brains. That's been shown recently.
I've never microwaved or cooked anything in plastic, and I've yelled at people who do since the 90s.
Unfortunately, I break my own teeth a lot. I've shattered three of them in my sleep. It's not fun to wake up to a giant cracking sound in your head, realize your nerve is exposed, swallow part of a tooth and need immediate dental surgery.
I started using over-the-counter night guards, which I chewed through like a fucking rabbit, little pieces of plastic all over. Finally, recently, I just paid for a "permanent" night guard.
First of all, the way this is done now is amazing. It's a 3D scan of your teeth using a tiny camera wand, and the model is built in full color directly on the screen; I even pointed out to the dental tech, on the model, a red spot where a tortilla chip had wounded me the previous week.
So they shipped me this perfect molded night guard which fits my upper teeth incredibly well, and feels like a gummy on the upper side. On the lower side, though, it has a harder shell and still takes the impact of my lower teeth. And after a few months, it's already starting to fray on the bottom.
With both these things, I have no idea what's in them. PFAS? How much of this shit am I swallowing? Wearing it all night, every night, I wonder what the hell it's leaching into my brain. I don't think there are any real regulations on what they put into them, and they're clearly extraordinary mixes of different plastics.
- graeme 3y agoIt's a good question. Can't say I understand the details, but I looked into this years ago and Talon is the material my dentist mentioned. This site claims: "Safest Splint Tested: There is no discernible leaching of free monomer. Studies verify residual monomer level of only 0.14%" https://burbankdental.com/products/talon-splints/ https://burbankdental.com/products/talon-splints/ Believe this is the manufacturer's site here: https://www.moderndentalusa.com/product/talon-hard-soft-guard https://www.moderndentalusa.com/product/talon-hard-soft-guar...
- noduerme 3y agoThat looks like the thing. I would love to have it tested independently if I'm going to keep it in my mouth every night for the rest of my life. (And I'm now afraid not to).
- graeme 3y agoBruxism is bad enough that I’d wager it outweighs any damage from the microplastics. We know people live with microplastics now, whereas bruxism will gradually destroy your joints, teeth, gums, and stress your muscles. But apart from the guard there are some things you can do to reduce it. There’s apnea testing, and also things you can wear to monitor it and get biofeedback. Also stress reduction, quitting alcohol/caffeine/chcocolate, some jaw exercises (rocabado), massage, physio, jaw alignment and teeth alignment, etc
- nick_ 3y agoDo you drink a lot of caffeine by any chance?
- noduerme 3y agoyeah. But only 4 cups of coffee a day. At 5:00 I switch to alcohol. I don't usually sleep til 4am.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- koheripbal 3y agoOut of curiosity, are you taking any medications regularly? Some medications, from ADD meds to heart meds, that can cause teeth grinding.
- noduerme 3y agoNo. I'm not on any meds. I moved to a new town and had a dentist tell his assistant, in front of me, that I was "another meth addict", but I've never done meth. I just operate at a really high level of stress that comes out in my sleep.