Not every person needs to sleep with a nightguard, but if you might want to consider it if any of the following applies:
You Have a Clenching or Grinding Habit
Not everyone clenches or grinds their teeth all of the time. Certain behaviors such as alcohol or drug consumption can increase your chances of clenching and grinding your teeth. Your mood can also affect your sleep. People with certain personality traits such as stress or having an A-type personality tend to grind their teeth more than others.
Having poor occlusion, also knows as a misaligned bite, can cause you to grind your teeth, especially nocturnally, placing a significant amount of force on certain areas of your mouth.
You Have Dental Restorations
If you have dental restorations, a nightguard can protect your dentistry and prolong its functionality and appearance. Crowns and veneers are susceptible to breakage or to coming off due to nocturnal force. Even if you are not conscious of it, you could be causing damage to your dentistry.
You Awaken with Headaches
A properly adjusted nightguard can help your jaw glide into an ideal position as you sleep. This allows your jaw muscles to relax and can help you to prevent headaches due to tension or tight muscles.
Having periodic adjustments to your nightguard will assist with long-term comfort.
We create custom nightguards, which are far more effective and comfortable than over-the-counter varieties that often feel bulky and encourage, rather than discourage, teeth grinding. We will take impressions of your teeth and a bite registration, which measures how your teeth come together.
We will send your data to our trusted dental lab and they will create a hard acrylic splint. The acrylic is softer than your enamel, so provides protection while still having enough give that it absorbs the force from your bite.