Why We Recommend Wearing Night Guards

We use night guards to help our patients alleviate their pain and discomfort. This is a noninvasive treatment solution that has proven to be incredibly effective at treating a variety of oral health challenges. Among them are the following.

TMJ

TMJ is a serious condition that can lead to face, jaw and neck pain. It is responsible for causing severe headaches and even migraine-like symptoms. If it is left untreated, the condition can worsen and intensify, eventually leading to more alarming symptoms like lockjaw. To prevent this, it is important to visit a medical professional for treatment at the first sign of a problem. In other words, anyone who regularly wakes up with a sore jaw or face needs to schedule an appointment.

TMJ is often caused by a person clenching their teeth or grinding them while sleeping. While it is not entirely known why a person does this, some believe it could be related to stress. Regardless of the reason, it is important to prevent it. We can do so by providing patients with night guards to wear while they are sleeping. This ensures that the jaw remains in a relaxed position during sleep and that the muscles remain relaxed as well.

Preventing dental damage

It is also possible to suffer dental damage when the teeth grind or clench at night. Some people experience unnatural wear patterns as a result of this while others can end up with a cracked or chipped tooth. Anyone who has spent significant time and money on dental restorations should be particularly concerned about this since grinding and clenching can damage those as well. Night guards can prevent this damage by ensuring that upper and lower teeth are unable to touch during sleep.

Night guards and braces

Sometimes a patient will wear a night guard in conjunction with wearing braces. This can be useful when there are concerns over the health of the teeth during treatment.

Comfortable and easy to sleep with

These guards are comfortable and easy to sleep with because they are created using precise measurements that are taken of a patient's mouth. They are created in a lab to ensure that they fit snugly and securely. This makes it possible for patients of all ages to wear these guards without any issue.

By comparison, night guards that are purchased in the store are designed to fit most people. This means that they fit no one perfectly. Instead, they can be either too large or too small. If they are loose, they could slip out-of-place and cause serious discomfort while sleeping. Many of these over-the-counter solutions are not as durable as what we create in our office.

Learn more

We encourage you to visit our office and find out if wearing a night guard could be beneficial for your oral health. We can conduct an examination, make a determination of if you are grinding teeth at night or not, and then let you know if a guard could be helpful. This will also give you an opportunity to ask additional questions about the process or the results. Call today to learn more.