Teeth Grinding/ Clenching

I have many patients (many are teachers!) who grind or clench their teeth at night and complain of jaw pain and muscle soreness in the morning. Well, recently I have been having symptoms myself with clenching. My jaws have been popping on opening wide, and sometimes my facial muscles are so tight I can't open wide to bite a sandwich. You'd think I'd know how to treat myself right? Sad to say, I didn't wear my night guard regularly and the pain continued. When you clench your teeth in your sleep, apparently you can generate 300 lbs of force on them. With a night guard, you are still clenching, but it's not teeth-on-teeth, and the force is not as strong (maybe 100 lbs). The grinding & clenching can also wear down your teeth over time, possibly breaking/ chipping them in the future. The most helpful treatment for me was massaging the TMJs for a few minutes each day, and wearing the night guard every night. Now there's new treatment modality on the horizon- Botox injection directly in the clenching muscles. The thinking is that the Botox will stop the contraction of the muscles, hence no clenching. And it'll make you look younger! Joking aside, this treatment is still in its infancy, and there's not enough data to support it yet. I imagine it's costly and needs to be repeated every few months. Will it make you less efficient at eating since your chewing/ clenching muscles will be contracting less? Stay tuned to find out.  More info here.