So I took the carbine training with GAPP (very recommended) but after my jaw hurt pretty bad and I had a decent headache. The headache itself isn't a surprise per se but I think that and my jaw pain was caused by clenching my teeth while shooting. Anyone else have this issue? I assume that just using a standard sports mouth guard would help resolve the problem.

Bruxism is when you clench (tightly hold your top and bottom teeth together) or grind (slide your teeth back and forth over each other) your teeth.

 

From the U.S. National Library of Medicine - The World's Largest Medical Library website:

Treatment

The goals of treatment are to reduce pain, prevent permanent damage to the teeth, and reduce clenching as much as possible.

To help relieve pain, there are many self-care steps you can take at home. For example:

• Apply ice or wet heat to sore jaw muscles. Either can have a beneficial effect.
  
• Avoid eating hard foods like nuts, candies, steak.
  
• Drink plenty of water every day.
  
• Get plenty of sleep.
  
• Learn physical therapy stretching exercises to help restore a normal balance to the action of the muscles and joints on each side of the head.
  
• Massage the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and face. Search carefully for small, painful nodules called trigger points that can cause pain throughout the head and face.
  
• Relax your face and jaw muscles throughout the day. The goal is to make facial relaxation a habit.
  
• Try to reduce your daily stress and learn relaxation techniques.
  

To prevent damage to the teeth, mouth guards or appliances (splints) have been used since the 1930s to treat teeth grinding, clenching, and TMJ disorders. A splint may help protect the teeth from the pressure of clenching.

A splint may also help reduce clenching, but some people find that it makes their clenching worse. In others, the symptoms go away as long as they use the splint, but pain returns when they stop or the splint loses its effectiveness over time.

There are many different types of splints. Some fit over the top teeth, some on the bottom. They may be designed to keep your jaw in a more relaxed position or provide some other function. If one type doesn't work, another may.

For example, a splint called the NTI-tss fits over just the front teeth. The idea is to keep all of your back teeth (molars) completely separated, under the theory that most clenching is done on these back teeth. With the NTI, the only contact is between the splint and a bottom front tooth.

As a next phase after splint therapy, orthodontic adjustment of the bite pattern may help some people. Surgery should be considered a last resort.

Finally, there have been many approaches to try to help people unlearn their clenching behaviors. These are more successful for daytime clenching, since nighttime clenching cannot be consciously stopped.

In some people, just relaxing and modifying daytime behavior is enough to reduce nighttime bruxism. Methods to directly modify nighttime clenching have not been well studied. They include biofeedback devices, self-hypnosis, and other alternative therapies.

 

I suffer from this from time to time. One simple way to stop is to stick your tongue between your teeth. It'll remind you not to real fast.

 

Did you eyes feel sensitive also? Believe it or not you may be sensitive to the percussion of firearms. I am with certain muzzle brakes/compensators. Changed them to different style of blast deflection and problem went away.

Wow thanks t bill. I don't remember any particular eye sensitivity. I've shot this rifle plenty, though maybe not with the regularity of this day in particular. I have a miculek comp on my rifle so my blast sucks for the guys standing next to me but not so bad for myself. I think I'll buy a mouth guard for the next class and see if it helps.

How tight were you holding the rifle against your cheek/jaw? Maybe you should invest in a nice cheek weld if you dont already have one? I had a similar problem but then added a CAA cheek weld and ultimately moved to a Magpul STR stock. Theyboth felt nice and comfortable.

why the headache? noise or from your jaw hurting? I tend to grind my teeth in my sleep when i am stressed, its sub-consious for me. Hasent happend in a while but i had it pretty bad (popping and stiuff) right around the time i found out that my then girlfriend was preggo. lol

How tight were you holding the rifle against your cheek/jaw? Maybe you should invest in a nice cheek weld if you dont already have one? I had a similar problem but then added a CAA cheek weld and ultimately moved to a Magpul STR stock. Theyboth felt nice and comfortable.

 

I have a standard a2 stock. I don't remember honestly how tight it was against my face. Never thought of that.

 

 

why the headache? noise or from your jaw hurting? I tend to grind my teeth in my sleep when i am stressed, its sub-consious for me. Hasent happend in a while but i had it pretty bad (popping and stiuff) right around the time i found out that my then girlfriend was preggo. lol

 

Lol. If I had to guess the headache was from my jaw. It was outside so noise wasn't a big issue other than one time I put up my rifle and knocked my muffs a little off. Even that wasn't a big deal.