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Get Rid of Teeth Grinding and Sleep Apnea with Night Guards

May 01, 2023

Night guards are oral appliances helpful to protect your teeth from grinding while sleeping or injuries when playing sports. These oral devices also help reduce snoring and relieve obstructive sleep apnea.

The term night guards can make you assume you can purchase them from drugstores or sports goods stores to counter the problem you face with teeth grinding. However, store-bought devices do not help with bruxism, causing you to grind and clench your teeth, resulting in teeth damage and sensitivity. Therefore if affected by bruxism, you must look for a dentist near you providing customized night guards created explicitly for you.

What Causes Teeth Grinding?

Teeth grinding and clenching are identified as bruxism, a sleep-related movement disorder resulting in problems like tooth pain, jaw pain, and sore gums. Bruxism can also damage teeth because by causing enamel erosion.

Stress and anxiety are primarily mentioned as the cause of teeth grinding. In addition, problems like sleep apnea, taking certain medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, consuming excessive alcohol or caffeine, and using recreational drugs all contribute to bruxism, causing you to grind and clench your teeth when sleeping.

Bruxism is a common problem among children and teenagers who generally outgrow it during adulthood when their permanent teeth develop.

Symptoms of Teeth Grinding

You could be grinding your teeth when sleeping or awake. Besides grinding your teeth and clenching your jaw, you may also experience alternative symptoms like face, neck, and shoulder pain, a painful jaw that results in TMJ disorders, worn or broken teeth with increased sensitivity, headaches, earaches, disturbed sleep, tooth loss and loss of restorations.

How Night Guards Help

If the symptoms mentioned above concern you, seek help from dentists because the professional will identify the signs of bruxism by examining your teeth. The nearby dentist will suggest that you wear an available night guard near you when sleeping to ensure you can keep your top and bottom teeth separated to prevent them from damaging each other.

The mention of an available night guard near you might send you scurrying to the neighborhood supermarket or drugstore looking for oral appliances that resemble mouthguards used by sportspersons and children frequently. However, OTC appliances are unsuitable for bruxism, making it essential to visit a dental night guard clinic near you to have an oral appliance customized for your needs.

Customized night guards from dentists will cost higher than OTC oral appliances. However, they are created from durable material and will fit your teeth and mouth as desired by the dentist to prevent damage to your teeth. Therefore you must invest in an oral appliance created by a dental professional without considering inexpensive and affordable mouthguards available over the counter.

Choosing the Right Night Guard

Choosing the proper night guard is a problem you must overcome by discussing your issue with the dentist in Auburn, Al, instead of looking for affordable alternatives that don’t help with the situation and will likely make you discard them shortly because of their bulkiness and improper fit. While you will not encounter challenges purchasing OTC stock mouthguards from sports goods stores available at affordable prices in small, medium, and large sizes, it helps if you understand stock mouthguards merely cover your upper teeth. In addition, these versions are uncomfortable, making it challenging to talk when wearing one.

Another variety called the boil and bite mouthguard, also available in most drugstores, comes in one size, which you must customize to fit your teeth. The customization involves boiling the mouthguard to soften it before placing the appliance over your teeth and biting down.

The best oral appliance to get rid of teeth grinding and sleep apnea are night guards in Auburn, Al, which a dentist creates specifically for your mouth structure and teeth. Customized night guards by dentists fit better than stock mouthguards and the boil-and-bite variety. In addition, personalized devices are more comfortable and challenging to dislodge your mouth when sleeping.

If you have bruxism or sleep apnea, a dentist-created customized night guard is your best option to overcome the problem affecting you. The dentist-provided oral appliances are more offensive than OTC devices. However, most dental insurance plans cover the costs of these devices because they help prevent damage to your teeth.

If you are affected by the problem of snoring or teeth grinding, Central Park Dental Care provides customized night guards to help you overcome the problem. Consulting them today will get you a personalized night guard to safeguard your teeth from unnecessary damage to require expensive treatments.

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