What are some ways I could stop biting the inside of my lip?

Question

I do this as a nervous, subconscious habit, biting the inside of my lip and cheeks. But I hear it's not good for me, so want to stop. Know any tricks?

Answer 1

First and foremost, like someone said, try something like chewing gum, or something similar. It’s still keeping your mouth and tongue in motion, so that’ll curb a little bit of the habit, but more importantly you’re consciously chewing something in your mouth which, if I’m not mistaken, should help you not subconsciously chew your actual mouth? Even having anything in your mouth to focus your bite on will help. Pop a piece of sugar free gum in the morning as soon as you wake up, to stop chewing any of the new skin that grows during the night.

You said it was nervous, and I think a lot of the time lip-biting is to do with stress. I used to bite my lip (but it was the outside) whenever I was nervous, and I wouldn’t know until I made it bleed and it started to hurt. I solved that by using foul tasting lip gloss but I don’t think that’ll help you! Still, a few minutes relaxation, or just deep breathing, before something that could be stressful should help.

My husband had the same problem as you, and what helped him was rubbing lemon on the inside of his lips and cheek. Not only does it sting any wounds, making you less likely to want to do it again, but it will help clean and repair the wounds too, so that’s an added bonus.

It /is/ bad for you, it can cause infection and the like, so you’ve just got to remind yourself of that, and hopefully it’ll help deter your habit a little. People say it can cause oral cancer, but unless you’re tearing the insides of your mouth out and not cleaning then I doubt yours is that serious. Still, better safe than sorry, right? We don’t want anything bad happening in your mouth. :)

Good luck!

Answer 2

If you can not yourself stop biting it then you can visit your dentist He can give you an appliance which is called as Lip Bumper. This will help you in leaving the habbit as with Lip Bumper you will not be able to bit the lip and eventually the habbit will be broken. For more information on dental topics, you can visit www.identalhub.com

Answer 3

try gum :) u stop + nice breath

or when u catch urself biting, try biting ur toungue or lip alittle, NOT TO THE POINT WHERE U BLEED, BUT ITS UNCOMFORTABLE, so ur brain thinks that when u bite ur cheeks, its going to have a painful, neative effect

Answer 4

I used to do that, I found a hobby helps take your mind off of things.

I literally chewed a hole through my lip one time, I still have the scar from the 4 stitches it took to close it.

Answer 5

Hello...While your talking about lip and cheek biting, your describing someone with a stress issue and the lip and cheek biting is an emotional reaction to the stress...I have written an Information page that describes where Stress comes from...My piece deals with dentures because I specialized in them but the stress symptoms and  reaction is the same even if you don't have a dental appliance...

(EDS)

EMOTIONAL DENTURE STRESS

By: The Denture Pro.

Copyright - 1980

<[e-mail]>

The number of denture wearers who suffer from (EDS), Emotional Denture Stress

is far greater than those in the dental profession realize. Even today many dental

professionals do not recognize (EDS) or know what to do about it when they do figure out

that something emotional is affecting the patient.

(EDS) is usually exhibited by one or more of several different symptoms.  The most

common symptoms are red rash gum tissue, sore spots, loss of gum bone, fatty gum tissue,

loose dentures. Not every symptom is the results of a patient suffering (EDS), but almost

every patient who is suffering from (EDS) will have most all of the symptoms.

(EDS), Emotional Denture Stress is created by problems related to one of the

following areas. Health, Marriage, Employment, Money, s*x and Self Esteem. Let me give

you some examples of (EDS) in some of those areas.



It may be that the patient has a very close loved one who has a terminal illness and

because of that they stay very emotionally affected...A health problem doesn’t have to be

one that affects the patient personally.

It could be that the patient really dislikes where they work or someone they work

with and when it’s time to go to work they begin to get up tight emotionally. It could be

that a patient is dealing with the fact that they or someone close to them is in sever financial

striates and any number of situations could exist that is sexual in nature. Then of coarse

you have the patient who has great concern as to their own feelings of being a worthwhile

person....that could be due to abuse from a spouse, family member or friends. In any event

dealing with one or more of the above mentioned situations can cause a great deal of

problems for a denture wearer.

This is how it works.....let’s look at it as though it were a large clock on the wall.

Let’s say that you get up in the morning and what ever it is that causes your stress to start

up begins. We call that 12:00 on the stress clock. Between 12:00 and 3:00 on the stress clock

(which could be hours or even days) the stress you feel causes you to clinch your teeth

together, over and over and over. Between 3:00 and 6:00 on the stress clock the pressure

from clinching or grinding presses the denture into the gum tissue and that pressure forces

the fluid in the gum tissues to be squeezed out and into the floor of the mouth. Between

6:00 and 9:00 the pressing of the denture into the gums had forced the tissue fluids out and

the gums shrink making the denture loose. The lack of tissue fluids allows the tissue to be

forced against the hard denture on one side and the hard bone on the other. This constant

pressure causes sore spots and eventually bone shrinkage..

NOW....when the shrinkage, sore spots and looseness gets to be to much the patient

shows up for treatment of those conditions at the dental professionals office. Between 9:00

and 12:00  on the Stress Clock the dental professional trys a number of treatment plans to

restore the patients dentures to painless well functioning dental appliances......HOWEVER,

if the true cause of the (EDS) is not discovered and dealt with, the Stress Clock will begin

ticking again and all the same old problems will return or stay as is.....What’s more, there

is “no” dental treatment plan or service that can over come the affects of “Emotional

Denture Stress”.

It’s very sad to have a patient that can’t be helped due to the fact hat they suffer

from (EDS) and either doesn’t know it or doesn’t have the courage to deal with it. I’ve seen

a number of patients who found out about their (EDS) through getting their first dentures

and through realizing it existed took steps to correct the issues, in some cases it took

professional counseling. Then there were those who through conversations on a private

basis realized they needed professional help but didn’t have the courage to seek it out,

usually those were abuse or drug related situations.

The bottom line is that any dental professional worth his or her salt should be able

to recognize they are dealing with a person suffering from (EDS) and after realizing what is

going on should be very straight forward with the patient and explain what their options

are.....and the bottom most line is that unresolved “EDS” Emotional Denture Stress creates

denture problems that “NO” dental professional can overcome by adjusting, grinding,

relining or even replacing the denture.......you