TMD Feedback

“I was referred to Jette in 2008, following a long history (thirty years approx), of grinding and clenching my teeth, which resulted in heavily restored teeth and a couple of dental abscesses.

Also, I have suffered intermittent head pain and left side pain since the onset of grinding. I have moderate hearing loss in my left ear. I had no clue that my left side head, neck and arm pain was due to bruxism. I thought I must have some kind of head tumor! Looking back I wish now that the cause for my fracturing teeth was identified all those many years ago.

More positively, when I was fitted (meticulously and expertly), with my tanner appliance, the relief was huge. I loved the robustness of it and the great comfort it gave me (still does), and the wonderful, quite unexpected relief and wellbeing I was experiencing. It was simply fantastic. I was so fortunate to have found Jette Holbrook, without her wonderful expertise and kindness I would have been in never ending misery. My tanner appliance is my most precious possession. I am so grateful.”

“My teeth clenching (bruxism) during sleep resulted in severe pain and two root fractures requiring extractions. I continued to have pain in my teeth, jaw, face, neck and shoulders, disrupted sleep and anxiety. I had difficulty in eating, brushing my teeth, even smiling due to the pain in my face and struggled going to work due to tiredness and pain.

My dentist referred me to Jette, thank goodness she did. Jette was wonderful, explained everything, reassured me and following some gentle treatment she skilfully created my occlusal appliance, which is an amazing, comfortable, snug fit.

I now sleep so much better; the pain has reduced dramatically, the anxiety diminished and I am not afraid to sleep anymore. What a relief, life is so much better. I couldn’t speak more highly of Jette and her team. Thank you.”

“I had been through a particularly stressful year along with a root canal, tooth extraction and wisdom tooth trouble. By December I had developed bruxism, causing pain in my jaw, neck, shoulders and head. In addition, I developed chronic migraine, which meant that I had to drastically change my job situation and adjust to a life with daily pain. My mental health suffered greatly and I developed anxiety through desperately trying to find solutions to my pain. I thought I had exhausted all the options – physiotherapy, chiropractor, osteopath, reflexology, amitriptyline, topiramate, indomethacin, co-codamol, and many more things! However, upon a referral from my dentist to Jette at Holbrook Dental, to look at getting a custom mouth guard made, I began to feel more positive about finding some relief. I had a very thorough consultation process with Jette, with written questionnaires, a phone call and an appointment in her surgery in York. From the outset, Jette was positive, sympathetic and very knowledgeable about cases similar to mine and the options for me going forward. I had previously had a custom mouth guard made at my dentists, one which fit over my two front teeth. This had helped for a while, but I kept grinding my teeth and wore down the mouth guard until it was unusable, and I would have my jaw clamped in a very uncomfortable position at night. I feared going to bed because I used to get horrible dreams that my teeth were falling out, due to the grinding, and used to wake up with such a sore jaw, needing to massage the inside of my mouth frequently. The mouth guard that Jette had made for me was completely different right from the outset. It covered the whole of my bottom teeth, but it wasn’t awkward in my mouth because it had been specially designed to fit my comfortable bite. It was amazing to discover just how out of alignment my bite had been, and I could understand how the mouth guard was going to help. I wore the mouth guard as much as I could during the daytime and every night for 6 weeks, with a few appointments with Jette to adjust it as my jaw muscles started to relax. During this time, things really changed for me. I gained immediate relief from the feeling that my jaw was in the wrong position while I slept at night. I no longer had any nightmare ‘teeth dreams’ which indicated that I was no longer grinding my teeth. During the daytime when I wore the mouth guard I learnt to become mindful of whether I was clenching my jaw and then able to relax it accordingly. Running alongside me having the mouth guard I also started having Botox treatment for my chronic migraine, through my neurologist. The combination of these two treatments has been life-changing. My jaw is now relaxed and I don’t grind my teeth at night. I don’t need to massage my jaw and cheeks anymore. My neck and shoulder muscles are more relaxed. Whilst I still get migraines and daily headaches, the intensity of both is so much less, that I have been able to increase my working hours, social life and quality of sleep. My anxiety levels are much lower and I feel positive about the future. I would highly recommend anyone suffering with headaches, migraine, jaw pain and stiffness trying the mouth guard as part of a holistic treatment for your symptoms. It is an investment financially, but you will be extremely well looked after by Jette Holbrook and her team and hopefully you will experience an alleviation of your pain and get some of your life back as I was able to. Thank you so much to everyone at Holbrook Dental, and to my dentist for referring me.”