Please help, worries about lips and tongue

[jackdobs]

Hey guys,

About 2 months ago I started taking Sertraline 50mg and since then a lot has happened symptoms wise, mostly emotional but often physical. My mouth has felt weird a lot since I started and often I notice I can't keep my jaws still, always grinding my teeth or clank of them subconsciously when going through bad patches of anxiety.

I have since developed an obsession with looking in my mouth and noticing things, but what's worrying me most is, since a few weeks, I've been seemingly biting my tongue and inner lips in my sleep. The pain doesn't wake me or anything but when I wake up I can feel where it's become sore.
It then heals and disappears for a few days and then it happens again. At night I go to bed with fine inner lips and when I wake up it's been cut or something.

Is it possible this is just happening in my sleep or could it be something worse?

[elysemarie123]

Hello! The sertraline and your mouth problems may not be related at all -- you just may have started noticing. I too take Sertraline but have had the mouth issues long before that.

Jaw issues go hand in hand with anxiety. My jaw is a MESS. I sleep with a mouth gaurd and I am on my second one (I bit through the first one in about a year). I constantly have headahces from clenching my jaw and focusing on it. A dentist told me I actually have knots in my jaw muscles from clenching so hard.

I find it helpful to chew gum as it takes my mind off of the clenching and lets my mouth relax a bit. Has your dentist ever mentioned that you grind your teeth at night? A night gaurd helps protect your teeth but it also aligns your jaw so it can relax properly.

[jackdobs]

I saw my dentist a few weeks ago about my tongue (which was all fine she said), but i wasn't aware of the sleep biting. It's all I can think it is. Surely if it was anything sinister it wouldn't all of a sudden appear overnight? Not there when I go to bed but I wake up with a cut? :/