Imagine an uppercase U. A big U. Look at it from above. Let’s pretend that this U is your tongue. Now let’s pretend that you are in an airplane over the Gulf of Mexico and you’re happily eating some pumpkin seeds and reading the issue of Wired with Stephen Colbert on the cover and you haven’t even thought about your tongue in months and months. Are you still with me? Now look at that capital U / your tongue. See the top left-hand side? Let’s say we hit a little turbulence and your back teeth slice right the hell through that. There is blood. And pain. Oh, God, the pain. Fast forward 24 hours. It still hurts. It hurts to swallow. It hurts to talk. Are you going to take that U / your tongue for granted again? I didn’t think so.
I tend to use my “U” to fill the space between my mandible and maxilla to keep my teeth from grinding. I shouldn’t ride on airplanes that experience turbulence.
I’ve bitten mine a few times without even experiencing turbulence. But you got yours very badly since mine quit hurting after an hour or so.