halo everybody,
I am cheek bitter too. I am a dentist, what a shame. I have also started when I was about 5 years old. Sometime it was better sometime worse. At the university I did it more often because I had to concentrate on the text in the books. And know just the thinking of the habit, that I should stop, that habitual hurting may lead to oral cancer, makes me more stressed....
I am doing it when I want to concentrate on something especially , when I READ something, it can be book, newspaper, anything..maybe I get into the stress like at school that I have to learn it, so everything I am reading I read in stress . And second trigger zone for me is when I am TIRED and I have to deal some things. It is like you have to be awake so I bite my cheeks.
But I was thinking that I dont do it in front of the people so it means I can controle it. But at home I want to do it because I like to do it. And when I am doing it I am not relaxed. I am in tension so I am going to try to breath slowly and deeply and so to concentrate on breathing instead on bitting. to get relaxed.
And what about you? Do you feel tension all the day? Can you forexample laugh for real ,loudly and with all the muscles working?I realised that I cant.
Please write me I want to find the similaryties to help me and to my patients.
I am cheek bitter too. I am a dentist, what a shame. I have also started when I was about 5 years old. Sometime it was better sometime worse. At the university I did it more often because I had to concentrate on the text in the books. And know just the thinking of the habit, that I should stop, that habitual hurting may lead to oral cancer, makes me more stressed....
I am doing it when I want to concentrate on something especially , when I READ something, it can be book, newspaper, anything..maybe I get into the stress like at school that I have to learn it, so everything I am reading I read in stress . And second trigger zone for me is when I am TIRED and I have to deal some things. It is like you have to be awake so I bite my cheeks.
But I was thinking that I dont do it in front of the people so it means I can controle it. But at home I want to do it because I like to do it. And when I am doing it I am not relaxed. I am in tension so I am going to try to breath slowly and deeply and so to concentrate on breathing instead on bitting. to get relaxed.
And what about you? Do you feel tension all the day? Can you forexample laugh for real ,loudly and with all the muscles working?I realised that I cant.
Please write me I want to find the similaryties to help me and to my patients.
i also bite the inside of my cheeks. i have probably started around when i was ten. But ive noticed that i always do it when im either really hungry, bored, or stressed. And most of the time i dont even realize im doing it until im done and there is nothing left to chew. When ever i try to stop, i can only last one or two days and then i start chewing again. IT SUCKS!!!
Try hypnosis!
I started when braces tore up the inside of my mouth. I am 60 and am still doing it. The only time I stopped is when I bit so hard my teeth hurt. But once the nerves recovered I started back up because I enjoy it. But I suspect it has caused deep lines around my lips, from excess "puckering". I have no proof these lines would not have developed anyway, but I am sure it does not help. I am prety sure I can stop with hypnosis and deep breathing...which is good, because I tend to hold my breath while biting, and that is not a good thing!
I started when braces tore up the inside of my mouth. I am 60 and am still doing it. The only time I stopped is when I bit so hard my teeth hurt. But once the nerves recovered I started back up because I enjoy it. But I suspect it has caused deep lines around my lips, from excess "puckering". I have no proof these lines would not have developed anyway, but I am sure it does not help. I am prety sure I can stop with hypnosis and deep breathing...which is good, because I tend to hold my breath while biting, and that is not a good thing!
I can relate to all of these posts. The gum/cheek biting, feeling with your tongue for the "rough" spots and pulling the skin. Oh yeah, and using your finger and pressing so it's easier to bite at. We should start a support group :p. Definitely from stress/anxiety though!
WOW i'm studying for an exam and noticed i was doing it also, and decided to look up ways to stop it! i've done this for forever, since i was little, i think because my sister did it. i have anxiety for sure so maybe that's the cause of it? it seems like you're right though, the only way to stop it is to let them heal, but sometimes the healed skin is extremely easy to bite off.. it's a terrible cycle :( best of luck to everyone else out there, i cant believe i'm not the only one!
Well, I have been doing this cheek biting for about 15-20 years. My mom does the same thing. We both try and quit, but find ourselves doing it not even realizing it. Last year I took my son to a therapist for sensory issues and found out a lot about myself as well. People that do things like biting nails, playing with their own hair, cheek biting, or some other strange thing is trying to bring themself back to a balance. It's your bodies copeing mechanism. I was really noticing that I bite my cheek when I'm bored and tired when driving, when I'm deep in thought, when I'm in a stressful situation, and when I'm angry. This is my way of picking myself up or bringing myself down. I'm trying to do something else when I'm in one of these situations. Like chewing gum while driving. My son chews his nails so bad and he does it when he is stressed and so on. Well hopes this helps. It is really hard to stop! I was sounding like an addic the other day because I was telling my husband that I do it because I enjoy doing it! Now that's a problem!!! lol
I don't chew my cheeks, but I do sorta chew/suck on my bottom lip. It doesn't seem to be quite as bad as cheek biting, though, as I don't pull off any skin... I just have developed a nasty lump on the inside of my lip where I usually suck it in and chew on it, and beause of the years and years of doing this, it just wont go away.
I almost always do it... When I'm stressed, anxious, nervous, bored... List could go on. I find it really hard to stop, when someone (like my boyfriend) points out that I'm doing it.
The best thing I have found, like stated in the post before me, was chewing gum, or sucking on a lollipop or something along the lines. Just /anything. to get my mind off it.
Sometimes I can go a while without doing it, but it's just a matter of time before it starts up again.
Ah well... guess it's more a thing of personal will, then?
Good luck to all you biters, anyway!
I almost always do it... When I'm stressed, anxious, nervous, bored... List could go on. I find it really hard to stop, when someone (like my boyfriend) points out that I'm doing it.
The best thing I have found, like stated in the post before me, was chewing gum, or sucking on a lollipop or something along the lines. Just /anything. to get my mind off it.
Sometimes I can go a while without doing it, but it's just a matter of time before it starts up again.
Ah well... guess it's more a thing of personal will, then?
Good luck to all you biters, anyway!
I was just looking on the internet to see if anyone had an idea to `cure`the cheek chewing, but i see that a lot of people have the samre problem as me. I have herd before that if u get a percing that it will take away from your chewing, instead you will play with the earing. I`ve tought about it just dont know if one on the tounge or the lip would be better to perice.
I am relieved to find all of the posts by persons who have the same issue I have. (Misery loves company.) I am fifty years old and have been biting my cheeks and lips since I was a kid. I distinctly remember seeing my mother do it and started the same thing to be like her. (Talk about a perverse compliment.) It has since become a habit for me, psychological, I guess. If anything causes the unevenness in my cheeks (such as eating a hot meal), I start biting. If I'm under stress, I start. If I'm bored, I start. If I am reading, I start. (. . . and so on.) Once I start, I find it very difficult to stop. It's like (or actually is) an obsessive-compulsive habit. I too will use my hands to push my cheek in so I can bite that little piece of dead skin. How messed up! Watching me perform this little maneuver is unnerving and annoying to anyone who happens to be around me at the time. I have made some efforts over the years to break the habit, obviously to no avail.
I plan to consider the comments made on this blog, give quitting another try, and let you all know if I am successful (and, of course, tell you how).
Good luck, everyone.
Kelly
I plan to consider the comments made on this blog, give quitting another try, and let you all know if I am successful (and, of course, tell you how).
Good luck, everyone.
Kelly
mine i bite cause my skin in the inside of my lips start to feel like itchy, then the skin gets rough which then leads me to the other problem.....this is one of the most annoying habits ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see it has been a while since anyone posted on here and still we have not gotten any answers, but I do this as well and after I realized that I had bitten a hole in my cheek I got very light-headed and felt as though I was going to pass out. I have been doing this since I was a child and my parents took me to the doctor because they thought there was something wrong with my mouth...I did not tell them that I was biting my cheeks, but as soon as the doctor saw me he told them what was going on. The doctor did not tell my parents anything that they could do, it was just a bad habit that I picked up and to help me stop whenever they see me doing it. I suppose I had anxiety back then and didn't realize it. I wish I had something more to say, but that is all the doctor told my parents. :-(
Once again, me to!!! Like everyone else I thought I was the only one. I definitely feel retarded doing it and I also feel like I have to hide it. Its embarrassing for me when I have my first knuckle of my pointer finger pressing so hard on your cheek that it looks like your mouth is on the side of your face!! I to started when I was really young, like 4 or 5. I know that I used to suck my thumb, and my parents made me quit. So I think I developed biting. And just like everyone else its a vicious cycle when you want your cheek smooth so you bite it. It doesnt make sence. Ive tryed everything, from putting squished bread in my mouth to protect the sores when I was little to putting wax on my teeth from the orthodontist ( when I had braces) so that if I did bite I couldnt rip anything off.
AND FINALLY WHAT I DID FIND THAT WORKS ( ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE TO KEEP REAPPLYING IT) IS THROAT ANTISEPTIC SPRAY FOR SORE THROATS. IT NUMBS YOUR TONGUE SO YOU CANT FEEL THE ROUGHNESS OF YOUR CKEEKS :O. I KNOW IT DOEST LAST LONG, BUT IT DOES WORK.
Tara
AND FINALLY WHAT I DID FIND THAT WORKS ( ALTHOUGH YOU HAVE TO KEEP REAPPLYING IT) IS THROAT ANTISEPTIC SPRAY FOR SORE THROATS. IT NUMBS YOUR TONGUE SO YOU CANT FEEL THE ROUGHNESS OF YOUR CKEEKS :O. I KNOW IT DOEST LAST LONG, BUT IT DOES WORK.
Tara
wow, i can't believe how many people have the same problem i've had since elementary school ... when i was younger i bit my cheek so much i would make it bleed ... as i got older i learned not to bite so badly but i still go at it for the same reasons as all of you ... it is such a conscious effort to not do it ... it's exhausting! ... i've been much better the last year or so ... and i will tell you that the one influencing factor is that it is creating premature wrinkles on the one side of my face ... at first i was in denial but my right smile line and cheek look obviously different than my left ... my left cheek is much fuller and barely has a smile line at age 42 ... but my right side is sadly thinner, has a deeper smile line and even a sort of self inflicted dimple ... if i focus too much on it, i get very self conscious and even somewhat depressed ... look at what i did to myself!! ... even though i was well aware of what i was doing as a child, no one ever told me to stop ... my mom and dad never told me to stop ... our dentist never brought it to their attention ... i did read that it will not cause cancer so that's good ... but my advice to all of you cheek biters, especially if you're young, stop ... just stop ... do what you have to do to get yourself to stop ... chew gum, hypnosis, tell everyone around you to smack you every time they see you biting ... getting older and looking older as you age is a natural thing we all have to embrace ... but getting premature wrinkles just because you couldn't kick a bad habit is really sad ... there is some comfort to see i'm not the only one with this crazy bad habit but every time i look in the mirror, i can't help but feel embarrassed and sad :-(
I can't remember the first time I started to bite the insides of my cheeks but now it has become like second nature to me. Sometimes, I find myself biting and I didn't even know how i came to that point. I have generalized anxiety disorder and I tend to get nervous and anxious during social situations or in stressful most like midterm or finals season. I also bite my cuticles as well but I have begun to slowly ween myself off that by giving myself manicures but its hard with the inside of my cheeks. That habit is east to hide and super difficult for me to quit. My dentist says I should sleep with a night guard but whats going to happen when I'm out in the world? Theres no way I am going outside wearing one of those things (unless I'm playing a sport). I heard chewing gum heps but I have sensitive teeth and I don't want to keep chewing like a horse all day. Its feels assuring to know that there are people out there that know what I go through.
I started chewing the inside of my cheeks last May. Its has been almost a year now and I hate it. I am not sure why I started but I have tried using mouth pieces when I am not in public places or when I dont speak as much. I just thought that maybe it would help to put that out there. I am 29 years old. I am a single Mom so I just think that its and overwhelming level of stress. I am amazed that there are other people that do this as much as me. I am so embarassed when I catch myself doing it in public. I just shy away because I do it and dont realize it. I have since May of 2010 noticed the side I tend to chew at I have a crease in my face. I have told my family and people that are around me to tell me to stop if they see me doing it, because I just dont realize I am. It helps with them noticing and the mouth piece I dont chew until I have the sores or the inside of my lips are tender. Its just terrible to deal with. I also feel like I do it now as a lot of the others have said to smooth the roughness out because you want it to be smooth. I agree to that it is a never ending battle. My boyfriend asked me why dont you kiss me more. Well its because if I can feel the unevenness I am pretty sure he can. I just Hate It. I agree its like a habit you try so hard to break. You know its bad but you just keep finding yourself doing it. Has anyone went to their doctor and seen if it may be some kind of disorder? Or would that just be a wasted trip and money? I am serious about taking that next step and going. I have asked my dentist about it my last 2 visits. He asked me what my stress level was. He suggested a night mouth guard because I have started clenching my teeth. I dont feel so out of place or abnormal to know more people do this than me. So thanks to all for sharing. I also use warm salt water to help heal and to smooth out a little.