This headline in the BBC news caught my eye today...
Click on the title to read the full article, but here are what were, for me, the notable bits (italics mine)...
A chain of private dental practices in Hull is trialling a device which delivers a tiny electrical impulse when it detects grinding is about to begin.
Teeth grinding - or bruxism - is a common and usually harmless habit induced by stress. It can, however, cause headaches and stiff necks... Traditional treatments involve wearing a plastic device at night which prevents the top and bottom teeth from meeting.
With this new device, Grindcare, developed in Denmark, a small electrode is placed on the temple which then monitors the movement of facial muscles. When it detects tension mounting, it delivers a tiny electrical impulse - or biofeedback. This is not consciously detected by the sleeping patient but still serves to relax the muscles.
The device is said to reduce grinding by as much as 80% within two months.
"Further research will be necessary to establish the technology's true potential."
I'm not a teeth grinder but I'm an occasional teeth clencher. I don't know if it's the result of a stressful day or a bad dream, but I can always tell when I've clenched my teeth in my sleep because I wake up with a very sore jaw, and the headache and stiff (and achy) neck they mentioned in the article. I sometimes end up with a full-blown migraine, and I even clenched my teeth so hard one night during a particularly stressful time that I chipped a little piece off one of my molars! So since then, I've worn the plastic device and though it helps, it hasn't eliminated the problem entirely. So I was intrigued with this article, but disappointed that the device isn't already being sold. I told BW about it, and when I told him it had to undergo further testing before it might be made available to the public, he said, "Maybe we could rig up a homemade one in the meantime, using the electric fence charger!" Ha, my husband. Funny man! ;-)
In other news... due to a measuring malfunction, we ended up soaking more than twice as many organic soybeans than needed to make a batch of soymilk today. So I looked through all my cookbooks for a recipe we could use the excess soybeans in, and came up with one for soyburgers from the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (which, by the way, has the best French Toast recipe... though sadly, it doesn't call for a cup of soaked soybeans!) We cooked the soybeans in the pressure cooker and made a half batch of the soyburger "batter." After sampling a test patty we added some liquid smoke and tamari (because we can never-ever-not-ever leave a recipe well enough alone, ever!) and fried up a couple in a dry non-stick skillet. They were pretty tasty, especially on toasted bread with mustard and pickles! I took no pics of them, but since this post is in need of some eye candy here's this entirely irrelevant but amusing picture!
That picture was in an email I got the other day at work. Very clever! The jaw clenching sounds pretty painful, though. :(
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