The Grind


I am pleased to report that I am now grinding my teeth at night. I noticed several weeks ago that my teeth were hurting and I thought my new espresso maker was stripping the enamel of my teeth. Maybe it is...and maybe the espresso is making me tense. I have relegated the espresso to the weekend. Half-caf, half-decaf, 12 oz of drip coffee during the week. Over Christmas vacation, though, every day espresso. Too much. In times of inordinate stress during the past, I have had a TMJ of sorts where I cannot even chew. But it has been years since I experienced this.

My dentist noticed the enamel wearing away during the last check-up right before Christmas. He recommended that I buy some $ 300 mouthpiece through his office while calling products like GrindGuard above "useless." I really questioned his assessment. The principal of keeping teeth from grinding teeth (like iron sharpening iron) seems pretty elementary. I distrust doctors and dentists recommendations that are costly unless they can effectively explain why the 30X more costly mouthpiece works and the GrindGuard won't. To be fair, I didn't ask, already not buying his assessment. A lot of our medical expenses these days are an unhealthy symbiosis between medical professionals who are looking to get more green and patients who are looking for a new pill or process to cure their ill.

I read this last night and it was a comfort to me. I wondered if David ground his teeth when Saul was hunting him down? Oh yeah, and I bought the GrindGuard.

Psalm 57 (written when David fled from Saul in the cave)

Be merciful unto me, O God. be merciful unto me for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.     



 

         

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann...
Read more

Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

Image
I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant. There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament . See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity. The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations. When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" w...
Read more