Our approach to general dentistry involves treatments to manage common oral health issues and protect smiles from painful complications. With chronic teeth grinding, also known as bruxism, we can use general dentistry to bring relief and save your smile from injury. In today’s blog, your Ankeny, IA, dentist talks about treating bruxism.
The Causes of Chronic Teeth Grinding
Why do some of us grind our teeth on a nightly basis? Bruxism could be the result of a high level of stress in your daily life, or due to untreated TMJ disorder. There could be other factors too, such as tooth loss, misalignments, injury to the face or jaw, or issues with the growth of your jaw or the eruption of your teeth. As part of your treatment, we will carefully examine your smile and look at signs of wear and friction to assess the cause and severity of your teeth grinding. From there, we can choose the most appropriate treatment option to bring relief and protect your smile!
Symptoms and Dangers
Your significant other may let you know about grinding episodes, so you know when to see us. But there are other symptoms that occur during waking hours. For example, you could notice soreness in the face or jaw, headaches and migraines, and toothaches and tooth sensitivity. Your teeth could also appear worn down and shorter. You need treatment because bruxism can wear down tooth structure and crack or chip teeth, which exposes the sensitive inner tissues to bacteria and increase the risk of tooth decay and infection, and could even threaten the stability of your tooth.
Help with General Dentistry
Our team could offer an oral appliance as part of our approach to general dental care. The appliance will look and fit like a mouthguard, but it has been custom-fitted for your smile. Worn at night, this can reposition the jaw to ease underlying stress on your bite. The appliance also places a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to prevent further damage. The device will be easy to use and clean, and of course it can travel with you too. If your teeth have sustained damage, we could address minor chips with dental bonding one visit, or we could place custom crowns for more substantial injuries.
If you have any questions about how our team will diagnose and treat bruxism or about lifelike repair for injured teeth, then contact our team today to learn more.
Dental Impressions Talks About Stopping Bruxism
Our team wants to help you enjoy good oral health and beautiful smiles with general and preventive care. To find out more about helping smiles with general dentistry, call Dental Impressions in Ankeny, IA today at (515) 965-0230.
