How can you stop rubbing your tongue on your teeth due to stress?

You need to see a dentist trained by OBI - Orognathic Bioesthetic International. I have been through the program (designed for people with TMJ problems which includes cheek chewers as your TMJ is inflamed from all of the chewing). I was a cheek chewer for 25 years and this worked!! It is a problem with your bite - the way your teeth come together that causes you to want to chew. The teeth are not all touching equally or optimally and so your brains wants to put something between them. This is not a psychological problem or a nervous habit, it is just a problem with your bite. The OBI program optimally aligns your bite (the great thing too is that you end up looking like you've had cosmetic dentistry done) and restores your teeth to their optimal shape so that they all connect correctly. After my teeth were "restored", my compulsion to chew just slowed dramatically and then stopped within a few weeks of the program. Must be an OBI dentist though, there are not a ton of them.

I have this horrible habit as well. I take enjoyment out of biting the inside of my cheeks, the inside of my lips, the lips themselves, and the sides of my tongue. It is a horrible habit- and I have been told that it can cause oral cancer- which is something I DO NOT WANT. I tried researching myself on how to get rid of this horrible habit. What I keep reading is chewing a sugar free gum. There is a new skin that grows on the inside of your cheek during the night, and to avoid chewing through that, pop in some gum right when you wake up in the morning. Also if you chew your lips, apply lip gloss or chapstick - that sometimes helps prevent me from biting my lips. Also if you tell a family member or friend to recognize it when you are chewing on your cheeks- so that will help you be more aware of why you do it. It is a habit I have had since I was 9 years old. A Lot of cheek biting comes from stress and being bored.If it is being bored that is making you want to do this, i suggest trying to find a game or a club that you find interesting, this will help take your mind away from wanting to do it. Or if it's stress that's making you want to do it, i suggest that you should start going to a spa every so often, this will help remove your stress and make you feel relaxed.

So try the gum- hope that helps- as for me I am trying to quit as well using gum and it helps a little. Hopefully it will get easier as days go by.

Answer:

I stopped over two months ago. I bit my cheeks for 26 years and I wanted to post to try and help others quit. I bit my cheeks and lips raw when anxious, like most biters. For me, its social anxiety--I would do it on my way to a public place, or worse--in public, or merely at home thinking about other people and places.

Here's what I did:

When I felt the urge come on, I smiled instead--at others, at the room, at myself--it didn't matter, just as long as my mouth was busy. Smiling put my mouth to work, it gave it something to do. It also made me feel better about myself, because I seemed happy, with all that smiling I was doing. Sometimes feeling better in a situation is as simple as that. When the urge got too powerful for smiling, I put gum in my mouth and chewed it like there was no tomorrow. Carry your gum with you everywhere. All my biting urges were completely gone after 48 hours. It was the first 48 hours that were the most difficult.