ok. here it goes. my PALS has this problem. and for him, its permanant. so we take precautions.
while he is in bed (to sleep) we put a strap that we made around his jaw that velcroes on the top of his head.
he also sometimes uses it during the day to keep from biting his tongue. if he ever has to be left alone for more that a minute or so, sometimes we use it then too. otherwise its just a matter of me and his mom watching closely. when he does bite his tongue or his lip, it can take quite a bit of force to get his jaw to release.
we also have to hold his jaw shut when we suction out his trache, as his mouth drops when we do this.
he also has issues with grinding his teeth. its a good and bad thing.
he uses this to alert him mom during the night that he needs something. she can hear it over the baby monitor.
but it also has made his teeth slightly shorter, and not too long ago, one of his teeth fell out.
back to the strap. we use shelf liner (the anti-slip, rubber kind) cut it so its about 1 1/2 inches wide. you want the ends to overlap by at least 4-6 inches. then sew some velcro onto the ends. we use folder paper towels under his chin and over his ears. place strap under chin and pull tightly before velcroeing. good luck
