Jaw fatigue..... What's the band aids?

[bowlofpetunias]

FFM may be getting out the elephant gun to shoot a mosquito. Easiest solution is to start with the mouthpiece. I have found comfobite the best for me.

I have longer miflex hose and an swivel for my primary. Hubby has been having some jaw pain so I think I will get him to dive my regs and see if it helps him.

 

[chillyinCanada]

My reg has a swivel, longer hose and routes under my arm vs over my shoulder. I have the Seacure but am ready to replace it. It took me awhile to learn to hold reg in my mouth with my lips rather than biting on the mouthpiece

 

[victorzamora]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel like a swivel and correct hose will probably help the most, but will also get the comfobite. How do you guys suggest I set up my hoses for the least amount of tension on the reg? I haven't decided how long or short I want each one. Also it was good to learn surface weight of a reg doesn't matter cause I am looking at an older metal scuba pro reg for a good price.

I have thought i really really might be a candidate for a FFM, but I watched Sanctum........ So yea.....

So, Scubaboard might collectively roll its eyes at this....but they can get over it. I recommend one of two hose routings: longhose or open-water DIR configuration. A longhose is a 5ft or 7ft long hose that goes down from your tank, under your arm, across your body, behind your head and then into your mouth. The long hose will allow looking around to pull slack out of the length of hose, the whole hose can conform to whatever it needs to be. I generally prefer rubber for longhoses, but it might be worth your time to get a rubber and a miflex hose....or start with rubber knowing you might need to try miflex (problem with miflex: it floats and can be unwieldy in a 7ft length). The other configuration is as was mentioned above: Straight down under your right arm, then straight back up. The swivel will allow this hose routing and *should* take the stress off of your jaw.

 

[WarrenZ]

Another vote for the long hose (rubber) and the Aqualung confo-bite mouthpiece.

 

[timz]

Just out of curiousity. If I bite too hard, will it cause headache other than just jae fatigue?

When I was diving at Key Largo, I realized my buddy was holding her second stage while she was diving. She told me that she support the 2nd stage so that can relax her jaw.

So I tried for the next 3 dives. Amd surprisingly, for the first time I didn't have headache after dive.

So' sometimes, i forgot to hold and sometimes i remember. Sometime, i still have headache and sometimes no.

I assume it was my bitting that causes my headache evertime I dive.

But it could due to other factor as well.

Do u guys think it's possible?

 

[WarrenZ]

I Have noticed that when I do a full dive with a non confo-bite type mouthpiece I feel the tension throughout my head. I dont notice this when using my deco regulator but probably would if I was doing hour plus deco so it could be a factor in your headaches.

The confo-bite is the one with the bridge that rides behind the front teeth. I dont even have to clench my jaw to hold in the mouthpiece. All respect to dive gear express but I bought one of their c-bite mouthpiece which was nice soft silicone but lacked the rigidity to hold onto my teeth so find an aqualung dealer and order one. by the way the Trident c-bite is also too squishy also.

 

[timz]

I Have noticed that when I do a full dive with a non confo-bite type mouthpiece I feel the tension throughout my head. I dont notice this when using my deco regulator but probably would if I was doing hour plus deco so it could be a factor in your headaches.

The confo-bite is the one with the bridge that rides behind the front teeth. I dont even have to clench my jaw to hold in the mouthpiece. All respect to dive gear express but I bought one of their c-bite mouthpiece which was nice soft silicone but lacked the rigidity to hold onto my teeth so find an aqualung dealer and order one. by the way the Trident c-bite is also too squishy also.

I checked the comfo bite mouthpiece. Looks good. But for now, i might just stick to the atomic original mouthpiece and learn how to relax myself while diving.

And i heard the moulded mouthpiece where u dip in 95°C water and mould it to ur jaw shape is quite good too. It becomes ur personal unique mouthpiece.

 

[djtimmy77]

I use a seacure, and trimmed the length shorter with scissors until it was comfortable for me.

 

[boulderjohn]

I was one of our shop's instructors teaching students at the pool a couple of weeks ago, and as a group we had a problem. Five of the rental gear mouthpieces needed to be replaced. They had all had their inner parts bitten through obviously by students, and obviously recently enough that it had not been noticed until that day.

I have never owned anything but the run-of-the-mill basic mouthpiece that comes with the regulator, and I have never had to replace one for that reason in my life. Now I have owned a lot of regulators over the years, but I guarantee you the life span of my basic regulator mouthpieces is many times the life span of our student rental mouthpieces.

To me, that suggests some people might be biting a tad too hard on the mouthpiece. Only the individual diver can tell for sure, but perhaps the best solution for jaw fatigue is just to lighten up on the bite.

 

[seeker242]

One more note: miflex hoses would certainly not hurt.

I heard these are not good because they had problems bursting, degradation of the plastic, etc. Is that still true? Is there a general consensus on their reliability? Seems like people here use them but then I have met people who avoid them like the plague!