Date	Entry
2006-09-07	Not ate chewing gum for 2 days now.  Jaw feels just the same really, still clicks all the time.  Tried to sleep on back last night but I woke up on my belly anyway.  Jaw feels slightly less tired than yesterday.  Got to try and remember not to force my jaw when I eat.  Don’t feel very stressed but not really getting enough sleep due to working site hours.     [Note:  At this point I though my clicking jaw could be to do with me chewing gum too often and for too long, also thought that sleeping on my side or belly could be making my jaw get pushed out of line by my pillow]
2006-09-12	Still not chewing gum.  Maybe got a slight improvement.  Been sleeping a bit better over the last couple of days.  Not been sleeping on my back though.  Still clicks really easily though.
2006-10-05	Still not ate any gum.  I think my teeth may be suffering though which is worse in a way.  There are sensitive bits on my teeth, right next to the gum on the left side of my mouth, top and bottom rows.  Plus my breath probably smells a lot and my teeth will be getting stained from tea.  I think my jaw is actually a little bit better, but it still clicks!  Next week I get my mouth guard.
2006-10-12	The lack of eating any gum is starting to affect my teeth, so I’ve decided to start chewing again, but only until my teeth feel clean, and try to only bite gently.  The effects of not chewing gum are:  Sensitive teeth on the edge of teeth next to the gum; bad breath; nasty tea aftertastes; general scum in the mouth.  Tic tacs just don’t do anything except for masking the bad breath for about 10 minutes, then you start to notice the scummy sugary residue and then the halitosis starts again.  Tried the dissolving dental breath strips too, and they are no better really; just more powerful than tic-tacs and cost about 10 times the price.   I went to have my mouth guard cast on Tuesday, should have it by next Tuesday.  It cost £50 going private.  Strangely it is £250 or so through the NHS!    Clickingness hasn’t changed in the past week or so.
2006-10-18	I got my “Bite Raising Mouth Appliance” yesterday and I wore it last night.  It was pretty tough to put on as it is moulded to my teeth perfectly and I have 2 teeth missing, so getting it into the gaps was hard.  When it was in, I seemed to be salivating a lot when I was trying to get to sleep, but I didn’t find it too hard to fall asleep with it in. Once I woke up, it didn’t seem as if I had been dribbling or anything in my sleep.    In the morning, my jaw felt like I couldn’t “click” it while the appliance was in!  (I don’t normally try to make it click, I was just seeing if it made a difference).  My top teeth at the front felt a bit achy, the thickness of the appliance must have been putting pressure on these teeth if I was gnashing my teeth while asleep.  For the next hour or two, the clickingness felt a lot softer, but now at 9.30am it is back to normal.  I think that over time this “softer” feeling will hopefully last longer and longer throughout the day, and I’m pleased that I felt any affect at all on the first day.   Not yet asked my girlfriend if my jaw clicked while I was asleep.  It must have stopped the grinding sound of my teeth though.   This has got to be the weirdest diary ever kept.
2006-10-30	It’s been almost 2 weeks now of wearing the appliance while I sleep.  At first it was hard to fall asleep wearing it, now I have no trouble at all.    Vicky says that my jaw sometimes still clicks whilst I’m asleep, but that “eating a boiled sweet” sound has stopped.  Some mornings I have that “softer clicking” feel and other mornings it is just as bad as it used to be.  Today it feels particularly bad, but that might be down to the fact that I have a wisdom tooth coming through and it’s hurting.   I feel that some nights I might be kind of chewing the mouth appliance; I don’t want to wear it out!  It still looks fine though.   Still keeping my chewing of gum to a minimum; spitting it out as soon as my teeth feel clean.  I think my next step might to be to try some kind of herbal relaxant, which will make me less stressed whilst I am asleep.  I think I must just get stressed or agitated and grind my teeth.
2006-11-02	I’ve been doing a bit more research.  It appears that biting nails can be a cause of “TMJS” (which is what I am pretty sure I have).  I forget what it stands for but it means that the jaw muscles are stressed and the cartilage in the joint is starting to pop out of place.  I have now given up biting my nails, which I find extremely difficult as I have been biting my nails since as long as I can remember.   I have also had a few bad days when my wisdom tooth on the top right hand side has been coming through.  It made my jaw tense up more and feel achy.  I read that if you have a healthy jaw you can open your mouth to fit in 3 fingers sideways without pain, and I could only just do that; it hurt a bit.  [This was actually down to a wisdom tooth coming through.] Today it is back to normal and I can open my mouth that wide without pain.
2006-11-08	Last night I forgot to put my mouth appliance in, and I definitely noticed the difference in the morning, the clicking in my jaw felt much more harsh and louder.  I was also feeling stressed before I went to sleep, I probably ground my teeth a lot last night.  So far I have been pretty good with the mouth appliance, this is the first night I have forgotten to wear it.   I am still trying to give up biting my nails.  I am doing pretty well, but I have still found it almost impossible not to bite a nail when I see that it is too long.  I will try to file them or clip them every night (or as often as needed) until I have given up completely.
2006-11-30	I have started filing my nails every other night, and now I hardly ever bite my nails!  I don’t really like having to file my nails, but I’ve never liked clipping them or cutting them with nail scissors so this will have to do.    I forgot to wear it one night a few days ago (again) but this time the clicking did not seem to be worse in the morning like last time, which I think is a good sign.   The mouth appliance is starting to feel a bit worn.  My sharper teeth are digging into it in certain areas and making it feel rough.  I think I will probably have to buy a new one every few months.  I have been wearing this every night now for 5 or 6 weeks.  Hope the dentist can re-use the cast they made so it doesn’t cost as much.   I have also noticed that my front teeth have been moving slightly.  I think this is due to them getting pushed out of place by the mouth appliance at night.  I am not worried about it at the moment as the movement is only slight.  They will probably reach a point when they will stay in a final position (hopefully not sticking out of my mouth at weird angles!).
2006-12-11	My jaw is feeling even better!  The clickingness is feeling softer in general.  I have forgotten to put in my mouth appliance again a couple of nights, but in the morning my jaw didn’t click any worse.   I have managed to not bite my nails much at all, so I am very pleased with that, but I am finding it hard to give up chewing gum.  I always intend to only chew for a little while, but I end up chewing it for ages, which can’t be good.
2007-01-08	Not much to report really.  Just thought I’d fill this in because it has been a while.  My jaw hasn’t got much better or worse since last time.  I think it will just start getting better very slowly now.  I think it is improving still, but it is hard to tell.  I think it has been a while since Vicky has told me “Your jaw was clicking loads last night”, which is something she used to say to me nearly every day.  It is definitely feeling less tired.   My tinnitus has nearly gone now.  I think I can definitely put that down to the van, as I have been always wearing ear defenders while driving it over the past few weeks and it has helped a lot.   [At this point I had been suffering from tinnitus, and I read that tinnitus is often associated with TMJS – as it turned out it was unrelated in my case]
2007-07-02	It’s been ages since I’ve wrote in this!  Tinnitus has gone – it was all down to a roof-rack I had on my van.  Once it was removed the problem went.   My jaw hardly ever clicks now, but when it does it’s pretty loud.  I’ve kept up with the mouth appliance, I’ve not been biting my nails and I’ve been keeping chewing gum to a minimum.  I think as long as I keep this up (which isn’t too difficult at all) my jaw won’t get any worse.  I will be happy if it just stays as it is now, and if it gets even better then that is a bonus.    I consider this case closed.