[harrie]

Krista, it sounds like the amount of ridges you have on your tongue indicates significant amounts of clenching. What happens when a persons clenches, along with the cheek muscles tightening, the tongue can also be forcefully pushed against the teeth causing the ridged look of the indentation of the teeth. Also many times I see the ridge inside the cheeks from the cheeks being pushed against the teeth. Stress is the most common reason why people clench.
When not stressed, the tongue should be in a relaxed position on the floor of the mouth and the upper and lower arch of the teeth, not in occlusion.
Clenching can cause tension on the temporal mandibular joint (TMJ), can cause muscular tightness in the neck and shoulders, cause headaches, and over time, can cause trauma to the teeth and can cause the gingiva (gums) to recede.
What I would recommend is to be aware of tension held in your head and neck area. When you feel those muscles tightening...relax and breathe. Short superficial breathing or held breaths will only aggrevate tension held in the body.
Massages are good.
Sleeping well at night is important.
Improving ways to psychologically dealing with thoughts that can contribute to stress is also important.
How you discribed the way the pain radiates from down the side of your face towards your jaw makes it appear to me that is mostly a clenching type symptom.
Maryanne

ps...what is 3 embies on ice?