You can grind your teeth due to stress or other factors, and this could eventually wear down or damage teeth. To protect your smile from the major impacts of bruxism, we can offer a custom solution. In today’s blog, your Ankeny, IA, dentist talks about stopping bruxism-related damage to your bite.
Bruxism and Dental Pain
When you grind your teeth on a nightly basis, which can happen when you develop bruxism, this places enormous pressure on your teeth. They can wear down and break, making teeth look short and also increasing the risk of painful complications like toothaches and tooth sensitivity when you eat or drink. Bruxism is also linked to headaches, migraines, jaw and facial pain, and changes in the neck and shoulders.
The disorder could be caused by a high level of stress in your daily life, or possibly due to factors like missing teeth, misalignment, injury to the face or jaw, wisdom tooth eruption, or issues with the growth and development of your face and jaw.
Diagnosing Your Teeth Grinding
Our team will conduct a detailed examination with both digital x-rays and intraoral cameras. The digital x-rays allow us to assess the positions of your teeth and jaw, and to find out if there is any imbalance. Intraoral cameras also identify the tell-tale signs of wear and friction on your teeth. With this information, we can diagnose your bruxism and then create a treatment plan to bring relief. For some, we could discuss orthodontics to address misalignment, or crowns or bonding to improve bite balance. We can even replace missing teeth with prosthetics, such as bridges or dental implants. But for most, we can offer relief with a custom oral appliance.
Help with a Custom Appliance
Our team will take detailed digital images of your bite from multiple angles with the intraoral camera, and use them in a lab setting to design and craft your oral appliance. The custom device will fit like a mouthguard and is worn while you sleep at night. When in place, this appliance will gently shift your jaw to correct imbalance, and also places a soft barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to prevent further damage to your smile. The appliance will be easy to use and clean, and it can travel with you with ease!
If you have any questions about how we diagnose and treat bruxism to bring relief, or about repairing damaged teeth with our custom crowns or bonding procedures, then reach out to our team today to find out more!
Dental Impressions Talks About Stopping Teeth Grinding
Our team is ready to offer a solution to your chronic teeth grinding, protecting your smile from injury. To schedule an appointment and protect your teeth, then call Dental Impressions in Ankeny, IA today at (515) 965-0230.
