Shrinking masseter muscles

[PloskoPlus]

Been using a splint at night for the last 8 weeks because the ortho said I was grinding at night and preventing my bottom teeth from canting out.  Now the thing is... I feel like my rather big masseter muscles have... shrunk.  Or am I delusional?  The splint is rather unpleasant to wear..  Dries out my mouth.

[joesun]

Plosko I'm jealous I wish my left side masseter would shrink to the same size as my right I had a crossbite pre surgery and my left side masseter was always larger compared to my right side. Originally the surgeon was going to do a masseter reduction but he decided not to in the end because he found that whenever he did it in the past it caused more problems and it was not worth the risk. My face is more symmetrical in terms of the hard tissue, but my left side still has more meat on it. It doesn't bother me much but it is noticeable

[nrelax11]

Can having uneven masseter muscles affect recovery after surgery at all? My right side muscle is pretty big compared to my left because I tend to clench more on that side for some reason. I wonder if a splint would help me.

[PloskoPlus]

Can having uneven masseter muscles affect recovery after surgery at all? My right side muscle is pretty big compared to my left because I tend to clench more on that side for some reason. I wonder if a splint would help me.

It could be just the shape of your ramus.  I just shaved my sideburns for the first time in more than a decade, and holy crap my right side is different to my left side.  (The whole right side of my face looks wider, better developed and more robust.)  Anyway, sleeping with a splint can't hurt at all.  May dry your mouth, however.

[nrelax11]

Ive always wondered if sleeping on one side of your face at night can affect anything. I swear I read that somewhere. Ive been chewing on my weaker side more now, since the side that has the larger muscle is where I ache more. I dont know what this is, but on my strong side(side that hurts), making a cracking noise if I physically push on my jaw and it moves a little. I stopped doing that for a while now since I figured that couldn't be doing any good.

[LoveofScotch]

Sleeping on only one side of your face, or primarily on one side, should have absolutely zero effect on the bones, muscles or connective tissues of the face. Fortunately/unfortunately, that's just not how it works.

Chewing would be a different story, though.

[nrelax11]

Yea I figured that sounded too far out there because that would mean if all muscles would change from laying on one side. Anyways, I was comparing my jaw muscles again today and im trippin lol. They're the same size pretty much. Its just because my bite is so crappy now from braces, that my left side has a harder time biting down really hard. Also, most of the time tight muscle will just feel/look bigger anyways. Was defiantly true with my neck muscles. Always thought my right side was a lot bigger, and it was, but it was because they were so damn tight.  I still thing my lip incompetence has triggered a lot of other problems, since my tongue just hangs in my mouth, putting strain on my jaw muscles. It makes me very uptight feeling all the time, which is no good for your body.

[nrelax11]

Back sleeping is just better for your body overall anyways. I can only fall asleep that way if I wake up in the middle of the night already tired. Stomach sleeping is juat bad news. Lol, I think I was reading somewhere once that was talking about whether or not stomach sleeping at a younger age or during puberty can affect penis growth.