In Wellington three years ago I was privileged to help teach a course on the Temporomandibular Joint, known better to most as the jaw. Only hours before the course, the people of Great Britain had opted to exit the European Union in what has become now a word for the next Oxford Dictionary — Brexit. While we pondered the impact on the world and New Zealand from Brexing, we learned about Bruxing, the nocturnal grinding of teeth and the possible cause from the jaw joint itself. "So what" you may utter through clenched teeth, but wait, consider the eerie similarities:
Brexing: a process of separation, with to and fro negotiations, potentially years in the making.
Bruxing: the coming together of teeth in a frictional back and forth way, years in the making.
Brexing: the state in question will not get into bed with its neighbours.
Bruxing: the person in question is likely not to be invited to bed with the significant other party.
Brexing: waking up every day after the referendum with significant discomfort.
Bruxing: waking up after a night of grinding in significant discomfort.
Brexing: for the Bremain camp, much gnashing of teeth followed.
Bruxing: characterised by much gnashing of teeth.
Brexing: While 100 per cent of Britons are affected by Brexit, 51.8 per cent of Britains actually Brexed.
Bruxing: Ignoring the unreliability of self reporting, Manfredini found between 8 and 31 per cent of people brux, 100 per cent of spouses are affected by a bruxing partner.
As you can see Brexit becomes a fitting analogy or parallel for the one who Bruxes.
Bruxism, a peculiar word, comes from the Greek word ebryxa, which contributes to the root word brykhein, meaning to gnash or grind the teeth at night. It does not coincidentally come from Bruxelles or Brussels, which is Belgium's capital, the home of the European Union.
Britain has wittingly allowed itself into a tight corner, that will create some stress and tension for a while before things get better. So too the jaw, we propose, has become physically restricted by tightness, forced into a corner, altering the ligament that stabilises the jaw in the resting mouth position.
The horizontal fibres of the capsular ligament complex do a fantastic job of guiding the jaw as it moves from closed to 5mm of opening. It also allows the jaw to rotate back on one side and forwards on the other to support the sideways movement known as translation. A tight ligament can develop after trauma such as car accidents, jungle gym face plants, Saturday night fisticuffs or tooth extraction, especially in complicated wisdom teeth removal. The ligament gets sprained and heals with inferior scar tissue. Slowly over time this can impact the functioning of the jaw and its disc. It can also develop with stress and sometimes have no clear reason whatsoever.