Bruxism is a widespread oral health concern, and one that could wear down and damage your teeth. Chronic teeth grinding shouldn’t lead to injuries, especially when we can offer a comfortable treatment option! In today’s blog, your Ankeny, IA, dentist talks about safeguarding your smile with bruxism appliances.
The Causes and Symptoms of Bruxism
What causes chronic teeth grinding for an adult? For some adults, this could be due to high stress levels in daily life. For others, factors that upset the balance of the bite and strain the jae joints could be responsible. These could include misalignment, missing teeth, injury to the face or jaw, or even complications with the growth of the jaw or eruption of the teeth. This could also include the arrival of the wisdom teeth.
If you don’t have a significant other to alert you to your grinding episodes, then you should watch for symptoms that can occur in the waking hours. Common warning signs could include jaw and facial pain, headaches and migraines, and aches in the neck and shoulders. You could also experience tooth sensitivity and toothaches, and your teeth could appear shorter than normal.
How Grinding/Clenching Damages Teeth
When you constantly grind and clench your teeth at night, this places serious pressure on them. Then pressure could crack or chip the outer enamel, or even wear down tooth structures. Not only does this alter the appearance of your smile, but the damage could increase the risk of tooth decay and even dental infection, so the stability of your smile is compromised. Our team can offer treatment for minor damage in one visit with dental bonding, or we could create and secure custom crowns for more substantial injuries, so you can feel more confident in your smile and avoid complications. But for treatment, we could provide a custom bruxism appliance.
Custom Oral Appliances
The oral appliance will be custom-fitted for your smile based on the detailed digital images we take of your bite, and the device will look and fit like a mouthguard. Worn while you sleep, the device helps reposition the jaw to help correct underlying stress and strain. This can limit bruxism episodes. We could also help prevent further damage with the appliance, as the device will fit between the upper and lower sets of teeth, providing a soft barrier to avoid further damage to the smile.
If you have any questions about how we treat an issue like bruxism, then contact our team today to learn more.
Dental Impressions Provides General Dentistry
Our team wants to offer a solution to stop damaging teeth and prevent uncomfortable symptoms! To schedule an appointment for a preventive dentistry, then call Dental Impressions in Ankeny, IA today at (515) 965-0230.
