NIGHT GUARDS
If you have ever woken up with a sore jaw and/or teeth this may be due to clenching and/or grinding your teeth while sleeping. Your dental health professional may notice chipped teeth, wear facets on your enamel and possibly jaw tenderness upon palpitating. Clenching is a silent force whereas grinding can be heard by your partner. A night guard is a preventive means of preserving your teeth, bone that surrounds your teeth and your jaw joint (TMJ).
Night guards are easily fabricated at your dental office. Most dental insurance companies will cover the majority of this device. The first step is to determine if you are in fact clenching or grinding. If you are, then a night guard would be recommended by your dental health professional. The first step would be taking impressions of your teeth and creating a mold of your teeth. From there your dental health professional can fabricate your custom night guard. These are typically made of a clear acrylic plastic material. After a few days to a week you would return to your dental office and your dental health professional would then try in your night guard to ensure it fits properly. Night guards can be made to fit or top teeth or bottom teeth depending on your comfort zone. The term “night” guard refers to the fact you would go to sleep with it in your mouth. It is very important each night that you run your night guard under hot water to soften the acrylic before fitting it to your teeth. Also equally important it is highly recommended that you brush your night guard in the morning after wearing it. Initially when wearing a new night guard if you haven’t done so before is that you will likely find that your saliva is increased and notice your pillow case wet. I always suggest that in the first week or two of a new night guard is to place a towel on your pillow case until your saliva is reduced.
The benefits of wearing a night guard are quite obvious. Night guards protect your teeth and fillings from chipping and cracking. It also prevents bone loss that surround your teeth. Lastly by wearing a night guard it can greatly reduce jaw pain as the guard forces your jaws to be slightly open. Over time your teeth will wear through a night guard and a new one would have to be fabricated. Like most health issues, prevention is key.
