If you grind your teeth on a regular basis, this is a disorder known as bruxism. Without treatment, this grinding and clenching could damage your smile! But we can help. In today’s blog, your Ankeny, IA, dentist talks about how teeth grinding hurts your smile and how we can offer relief!
The Causes of Chronic Teeth Grinding
What causes a person to grind their teeth at night? This persistent disorder could occur due to high levels of stress in daily life, or as a result of factors that upset bite balance and strain your jaw joints, such as missing teeth, injury to the face or jaw, misalignment, or issues with the eruption of the teeth or the growth of the jaw. As part of the treatment process, our team will examine your smile to assess the cause and extent of your teeth grinding, so we can choose the most appropriate treatment process and provide relief.
The Potential Impacts of Bruxism
Without treatment, bruxism could lead to uncomfortable symptoms like pain in the face or jaw, headaches or migraines, or even toothaches and tooth sensitivity. Over time, the constant pressure can wear down outer enamel to make teeth appear shorter, and can crack or chip enamel too. The injuries then expose sensitive inner tissues or bacteria and allow tooth decay and infection to develop. Don’t let your smile ache and suffer from complications, such as pain or even tooth loss. Talk top our team about possible solutions.
A Look at Treatment Options
We will begin by examining your smile with advanced imaging technology, so we can assess bite balance and look closely at the wear and friction on your teeth. We can then help choose the most appropriate solution. For people with misalignment, we may recommend braces or aligners to shift the teeth and ease pressure. We could improve bite balance with the placement of crowns or the use of same-day dental bonding. For some, we could take on tooth loss with custom prosthetics, such as bridges or even dental implants.
But for many, relief is opposable with a noninvasive and comfortable oral appliance. The device is custom-made for your smile and worn as you rest, providing a barrier between the upper and lower teeth to prevent injuries, and also repositioning the jaw to ease pressure. If you have any questions about how we treat bruxism with an oral appliance, then contact our team today to find out more!
Dental Impressions Treats Bruxism and TMD-Related Concerns
We want to help you avoid the onset of damage and major complications. To schedule your appointment and learn more about improving bite balance and health, then call Dental Impressions in Ankeny, IA today at (515) 965-0230.
