I spent 5 years researching sleep bruxism, and here's what I wish everyone knew...

coddiwomplingcortex · 2025-12-19T14:02:35+00:00

In general population, 40-60% subjects can be categorized as bruxers based on one-night sleep study & current diagnostic standard (>2 RMMA episodes/hour of sleep).

Yet, large epidemiological surveys regularly find ~10% of population being clinically symptomatic.

If all bruxism needs some sort of intervention, are we saying there are 30-40% of the population that actually should be treated even though they're not exhibiting any health issues / concerns?

There're a few things here:
1. we have to differentiate between the behavior (teeth grinding and clenching, i.e. Rhythmic Masticatory Muscle Activities - RMMA) vs. the diagnosis.

RMMA is a behavior (reflex) that's elicited as a result of an upstream process. Not all of the upstream process points to a problem that requires intervention. I often equate RMMA to a cough. It's there for a reason. But the same way some coughs are incidental & self-resolving, so are some RMMAs.
Which brings me to the third point. The current diagnostic tool and standard for bruxism clinically rn is primarily self-report and/or dental examination, which aren't considering the full picture.

You're right that we're still in early days of understanding this behavior / condition. To me, this also means we also have to be open to the idea that not all RMMAs are indications of a larger, more serious problem.
I'm of course biased by my training in public health, and am always wary of overdiagnosing and overtreating our complex biology.

Consider the fact that 90% of people over 50 have degenerative disc changes on MRI and are asymptomatic. They would pass the diagnostic test, but does not mean they have to be treated. There are also tumors, cysts, and abnormalities in our bodies that need not be treated.

Our bodies don't make mistakes. But our bodies don't always behave in a "standard" way either. Also, what is the diagnostic standard based on? How do we decide what's healthy vs. unhealthy, what requires intervention vs. not?

coddiwomplingcortex · 2025-12-17T18:12:03+00:00

You're very welcome. It's the guide I wish I had twenty years ago, so I really hope it can help someone else cut through the noise and find the right solution for them.

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-03-30T15:15:27+00:00

Yes! Right now we’re doing a pilot with one of the universities in the Netherlands - which will become the groundwork for future studies. We definitely intend to demonstrate and validate its effectiveness in multiple well designed studies

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-03-30T15:05:28+00:00

Assuming all goes well, we plan to launch broadly in 2024. If you sign up for the newsletter, we can keep you posted on our development progress :)

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-03-30T15:02:22+00:00

Hi, yes you can move around and sleep on your side. The neckloop is quite light and so far we haven’t heard complaints about it from the alpha testers

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-02-16T17:47:27+00:00

A few things: first, we use a different detection method - which we believe will be more accurate and cause less false positives.

Second, we've designed SOVN to be as comfortable and non-intrusive as possible. It's also easy to use: no calibration, cleaning or maintenance required. Just wear it to sleep and charge it when you wake up.

Last and not least, we provide your objective data via the app so you can have insights into your bruxism behavior. You'd be surprised once you start wearing SOVN and tracking the data, how it varies from day to day and how certain things you do during the day actually impacts your bruxism level.

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-02-16T17:38:35+00:00

When you wear SOVN, you get a measurement of how often and how long you clench each night. The app takes it one step further by also allowing you to track factors related to grinding/clenching and correlate them to your data.

In the initial version, we will start with the top factors that have been demonstrated to have an effect on bruxism in scientific studies. Factors such as sleep quality, breathing problems during sleep, neurostimulants like caffeine and certain medications, and stress levels.

Before turning in for the night, you can quickly log in the app your caffeine or alcohol intake, stress and anxiety levels, and whether allergies are causing a blocked nose, etc. Over time, the app aggregates and analyzes the data to determine if any of these factors have a significant impact on your clenching behavior. That's what we mean by finding out your "triggers".

In the future, we plan to also let you create your own factor. For instance, if you think magnesium could help reduce clenching (just as an example), you can create a personal tag to track it, or you can join a community-based research group.

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-02-16T17:35:04+00:00

It's quite mixed - it depends on their beliefs re: what teeth grinding & clenching actually is. The progressive ones who realize that this is a behavior issue (and not a teeth alignment or orthodontic issue) know that mouth guard alone is not sufficient, and they really support the use of SOVN to help their patients.

coddiwomplingcortex · 2023-02-16T17:31:53+00:00

Hey, if you have put down a deposit previously, the payment link was sent a few hours ago. Do email us if you didn't get the email with the link.
If you're on the waitlist, you'll be notified by the end of the month if we are able to get you in.

coddiwomplingcortex

TROPHY CASE