Will a Night Guard Change Your Bite?
Teeth grinding and clenching, called bruxism, is a frequent problem. Bruxism is challenging to control because it occurs at night during your sleep. If left untreated, bruxism will damage your teeth by wearing them down. This can eventually lead to additional complications such as chipping or fractures.
Your dentist exams your teeth during your six-month checkup to identify any signs of bruxism. If your dentist identifies grinding or clenching, they will recommend a night guard as a conservative option to mitigate this problem. Bruxism can leave you with considerable damage to your teeth needing further treatment. There can be a small risk of a night guard changing your bite.
What Are Night Guards?
A night guard is a plastic dental appliance custom created by your dentist to fit over-the-top teeth. The night guard absorbs the forces when grinding or clenching. When used nightly, grooves might tend to form in the night guard from grinding pressures. The night guard prevents this excessive force from causing damage to your teeth.
If you have bruxism symptoms and leave it untreated without using a nightguard, your tooth enamel will wear. You might eventually chip or crack teeth, requiring extensive restorative procedures to repair the damage. If you want to simply prevent significant costs on expensive dental restoration, it is common sense to invest in a nightguard to prevent your teeth from wearing as quickly.
Benefits of Wearing a Guard
When you begin wearing a night guard created by your dentist, the night guard prevents your teeth from contacting each other when you sleep avoiding unnecessary injuries. If you want to gain maximum benefits from your night guard, you must have the night guard created by your dentist instead of buying an over-the-counter night guard.
Will Your Bite Change Wearing Night Guards?
A night guard is a proven dental appliance for the treatment of bruxism. The night guard addresses the symptoms of bruxism by saving damage to your teeth caused by the grinding and clenching. The root causes of the issue are left untreated.
Bruxism has various causes including stress and anxiety. Sometimes teeth grinding can result from a life-threatening condition, such as sleep apnea. Using a night guard for teeth grinding when you are affected by sleep apnea protects your teeth from bruxism but does not treat sleep apnea.
In rare cases, a night guard might leave you with an open bite needing orthodontic treatment. Nightguards can alter your bite because they put pressure on the teeth and gradually move them, especially if you have gum disease and weakened tooth structure.
You can create a problem of bite change when using a night guard if you try to cut costs and purchase one of the many over-the-counter night guards. Although approved by the FDA, these night guards are not scrutinized for authenticity and may not fit well.
You might have sleep apnea with bruxism, and you may need treatment for both conditions, and your dentist may work with a sleep specialist to evaluate your situation to recommend an appropriate dental appliance to deal with both conditions. Dental appliances can treat sleep apnea while simultaneously treating bruxism to give you a successful remedy.