[Test & Advice] Using hypnosis to treat bruxism (teeth grinding) & other traumas
I feel very lucky because every time I need something, chance/universe gives me the solution. In this case, just when I needed it, I was not only given the coordinates of the best dentist in Montreal, but was also told about a method to cure bruxism: hypnosis.
The origin of bruxism
Bruxism = grinding your teeth at night. It is said that the noise is quite characteristic and horrible. This can be noticed if you share a bed with someone who is slightly sensitive to noise, or by taking an x-ray at the dentist.
Unfortunately, French dentists do not check this point systematically, so if you have any doubt, ask for an X-ray at the dentist at least every two years.
In any case, if you have been grinding your teeth for years, and if you are a little bit attentive, you can see your teeth decrease in size (height) quite noticeably.
In my case, it was during a company seminar, where I was sharing the room with a colleague – that I learned that I was grinding my teeth. She told me about it right away, because her brother also grinds his teeth and according to her, the noise is characteristic.
If most dentists explain the origin of bruxism by stress, I know that in my case, this is absolutely not the case. Because even during the round-the-world tour (where I am not stressed), I grind my teeth.
Bruxism because of a crown
I always knew that my teeth grinding came from the fact that I have a crown (at the incisor). A little too thick compared to other natural teeth. Psychologically, I’m afraid of damaging it, so my jaw moves at night to find a position where I can’t touch the crown => bruxism.
I talked about it with my French dentists, I searched online (0 result), nobody believed me, nobody took me seriously. They did the test with the paper – chewing paper, which leaves a small trace where it hinders chewing – before concluding that the crown couldn’t be filed any more, at the risk of being brittle. I was given gutters to put in every night, which I break every year. And the trays aren’t enough to protect the teeth, and they also make my lower jaw move completely.
Strangely enough, while the dentists made fun of me a little, the other professionals in alternative medicine all believed me – and strongly encouraged me to redo a crown, more adapted to my needs.
It is in Canada where I could find (finally) THE dentist who believes in my story of unsuitable crowns => bruxism. While waiting to have a crown done at home, I went to see a hypnosis-therapist in Montreal to solve this bruxism problem once and for all.
First hypnosis session
Appointment made online with a hypnosis-therapist in Montreal. No one recommended her, but I believe in the magic of chance, so if I choose her, it’s probably for a good reason.
My hypnosis-therapist sends me by email a form to fill in, with a lot of strange questions like “what is the color you like/hate the most ?”. On her site, you can see that the first appointment will last longer than the follow-up appointments (for the same price, 80$CA), because she has to take the time to explain her method to me and understand my needs.
I will transcribe here what I have understood. My words and sentences may lack precision, so please excuse me in advance.
Why hypnosis?
Therapeutic hypnosis is very different from show hypnosis. We enter a “trance” or a“modified state of consciousness“. It sounds scary when you say it like that, but it is the same state as when you just woke up in the morning, when you are between dream and reality, or when you are daydreaming and no longer hear the noises around you. At any moment, I am aware of what I am doing, I can open my eyes and leave if I want, but I can allow myself to “daydream”, guided by the words of my therapist. The idea of using hypnosis is very simple
the subconscious mind stores a multitude of information about us and some of the information contained in this giant hard drive dictates our behavior.
Neuroscience research has shown that our brain functions in the same way when we perceive external reality as when we perform an action in our imagination. Imagination becomes real and is interpreted as such by the brain.
By injecting certain data into our subconscious mind through hypnosis, imagination or meditation, we can re-program it, calm our anxieties, change our way of seeing things, get rid of traumas, phobias, stop drinking/ smoking etc.
For example, a few years ago, I called on a sophrologist in Paris for my stress problems and during the discussions, I told her about a childhood “trauma”: my favorite teddy bear, which I loved very much, was confiscated and given to another child, right in front of my eyes, without me being able to do anything about it. Even though I don’t think about it every day, it must have traumatized me so that 20 years later, I wanted to find this same teddy bear and buy it for myself. My sophrologist offered to hypnotize me and to imagine myself giving back to my inner child this cuddly toy. At the end of this session, I had no more desire to buy the teddy in question (even though this idea had been in my head for 20 years). So, the subconscious mind is totally satisfied with this “false” image (me with my favorite plush), and didn’t think “uh… it’s just imagination “. I hope this example has been clear to you.
Deprogram my bruxism
So, after telling my therapist the why and how of my bruxism, she suggested that I “reprogram” my jaw’s reaction to the crown. To make it simple and summarize very very quickly what had to be done: by closing my eyes, I had to imagine the destruction of the “bruxism” program in my imaginary computer, and imagine the creation of another “relaxed jaw” program. Which I did brilliantly.
That’s how I found myself floating on a cloud in the middle of the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, Egypt, one of my favorite places in the world. And then I could really see purple cloud shapes dancing (as clearly as the red color you see when you close your eyes and look at the sun), it was so peaceful and so beautiful.
It’s crazy how powerful imagination (?! or the state of trance) can be: at one point she asked me to imagine a countdown, and I could see the countdown distinctly like in the movies: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and at 0, a black curtain comes down to cover everything and it’s total blackness.
Conclusive results
I feel like my bruxism stopped overnight. Even though I don’t have absolute proof (because JB sleeps like a baby and has never been bothered by my bruxism), I no longer wake up in the morning with a sore jaw. I therefore highly recommend this method!
Hypnosis also allows you to stop smoking, get rid of certain phobias, do not hesitate to consult serious therapists. In my case, it was a therapist with a diploma from the EFPHQ, Quebec School of Professional Training in Hypnotherapy. In France, you can turn to psychologists specialized in hypnosis, such as Jean Doridot.
The rest of the article goes completely into the universe of the subconscious, esotericism etc.. If you don’t believe in it, you can stop reading here đ Thank you!
My therapist told me that it was very important that I also communicate with her during hypnosis, that I tell her what I see. Because when you are in an altered state of consciousness, the subconscious mind does its work and can show images that have NOTHING to do with what you were doing. It can bring up memories that we thought were lost forever, and point to the problem at hand
At the end of the session, I couldn’t hear my therapist anymore, I saw myself with myself, small: Anh 33 years old, hugging little Anh of 5 years old, saying “let’s go back to the past”. Little Anh 5 years old, smiling with all her teeth – natural – without crown, without bruxism.
At the end of the session, I was very upset, and thinking that I had not finished the work on my inferior child, I was not only disappointed with myself, but also ashamed that I had completely stalled towards the end of the session. But I kept thinking about this experience for 10 days, and I realized that: my subconscious mind did not deliver a message related to my inner child, it asked me to go back to the beginning, to the origin of the wreath laying.
That’s right, because I broke a front tooth in a bicycle accident at the age of 15, causing years of suffering – aesthetic and physical (devitalization, crowning and then bruxism). I don’t think I’ve ever digested that accident yet. After the first hypnosis session, the image of the accident was looping in my head. It was caused by someone else, there was nothing I could do to change the story, but in my head, I felt personally responsible for what happened to me.
2nd hypnosis session
I decide to come back to see my therapist to take care of it all until the end. Even if the first results are conclusive, I know that until the accident has been “digested”, I may grind my teeth again, even with a new crown.
I decide to share the “vision” I had at the end of the first session with my therapist, and it makes me feel good to tell her everything because that’s how we progress and really work on the deep origin of bruxism.
This time, I saw myself floating quietly around the Earth, and resting gently on the Isla del Sol in Bolivia, one of my favorite places on Earth. And then, my therapist asked me to talk to me 15 years old (at the time of the accident). She didn’t give me a precise framework for the “meeting”, but I saw myself with 15 year old Anh, just after the bike accident, traumatized by what had just happened. I was able to tell her everything I had to tell her, and I could see clearly, as one could see a light source with closed eyes, a soft source of light enveloping us both, and we are one now. There’s the idea of re-initialization, a kind of resticking of the pieces, going back to the original state.
This time, I followed all the indications of my therapist, without rambling, without thinking about other things. End of the 2nd session.
Soul Retrieval
Here I go beyond hypnosis and tell you about other things: One of the trauma healing techniques I have read about in esoteric books is called “soul retrieval”. The idea is that during a trauma (e.g. a bicycle accident), if the body suddenly stiffens to protect the vital organs, the soul also hides somewhere to protect itself – at the moment of impact.
I still remember, during the accident, it was as if I was living my accident in slow motion, the noises suddenly disappeared, with a little voice in my head “I can’t believe this happened to me. It must have been a dream. I have to wake up. No, it’s not a dream. I’ve seen this scene somewhere before, in a dream maybe, and yet I couldn’t stop it from happening”. As a result, one can, according to the Amazon shamans, “lose a small fragment of soul in a shock”. Thus, it isn’t by chance that I imagine myself again at the scene of the accident, because my subconscious brought me back there to recover this lost “piece of soul”.
Be careful, this is my own interpretation, not that of my hypnosis-therapist.
For more information on soul retrieval, you can read Itzhak Beery’s excellent book: The Gift of Shamanism: Visionary Power, Ayahuasca Dreams, and Journeys to Other Realms, which I happened to find in a bookstore.
Note: All these practices (hypnosis, soul retrieval) must be practiced with people you trust. Do not try to hypnotize yourself or look for your piece of soul yourself đ
I think that if I have to use hypnosis to deal with all this, it’s because I wasn’t taken care of right after the accident. I would have digested this episode of my life better if I had been immediately surrounded by osteopaths, physiotherapists (one of my arms still doesn’t reach completely), and a psychologist. Unfortunately, none of this existed in Vietnam when the accident happened. If you ever come across my article freshly after an accident, go immediately to these health professionals. Take care of yourself!
