J-man

Hi everyone,

Who here owns an NTI splint and is finding relief from it ?

I am mostly using my thin, full coverage splint, and generally speaking I am finding that it provides me with a fair amount of relief. However, there are times when I am waiting to get in for my next appointment, and the splint hasn't really been helping me a great deal. At times like that, I have a few 'back up therapies' each of which works for a period of time, or which works some of the time, but none of which works all of the time. These 'low tech therapies' include a water splint, rolled up kleenex, and wax paper inserted between my teeth.

I also have an NTI which works for me sometimes as well. For my condition, I've found that a very 'short' nti works best for me. I know that the doctor who invented the NTI says that for conditions which involve a fair amount of joint damage (as opposed to primarily muscular TMJ conditions), a short NTI may be most effective.

It's been my experience that an NTI may need to be adjusted periodically, just as a splint does. One point of frustration for me in the past, has been to find a dentist who will be committed to continuing to adjust the NTI, to keep up with your ever shifting bite. However, in the past few weeks, I've found some degree of success in making my own NTI adjustments. Don't worry, I haven't gone off the deep end and fallen into the delusion that I am capable of adjusting the biting surface of an NTI like a dentist can !!...lol. However, I have struck upon a method of changing the way my teeth contact the NTI, which doesn't involve taking anything off of it.....Instead I add to my NTI. I'll explain how this works.

There are times when I notice that my NTI seems to be biting harder on either the right or left side. But at times like this, if I shift the NTI so it sits on my teeth at a different angle, then the biting pressure will again be even on both sides of it. So what I do to change the angle of the NTI on my teeth, is I put kleenex in between the NTI and the teeth on either the left or right side..to raise it up on that side. This is similar to making an adjustment on the NTI, but the good thing is that it's not a 'permanent adjustment'.


I'm interested to know if others are still using the NTI, and finding success with it.

John