Top 3 Mouth Guards to Stop Teeth Grinding

After closing all the windows and locking all the doors, you finally walked towards your bedroom to have that much needed beauty sleep. On your way, you pass by your child’s room, sleeping peacefully in her bed. You were about to plod on towards your room when you hear an unmistakable grinding noise coming from your child’s bedroom. As you slip in towards the room, you realized that your child is grinding her teeth, otherwise known as the medical phenomena called bruxism. As a parent, it is understandable that you worry about your child. Although it is not a life-threatening disease, it can easily affect a teeth grinder’s quality of life, which is why it is important to immediately consider various treatment methods including mouth guard for grinding teeth.

Signs and Symptoms of Bruxism

Aside from the actual grinding of teeth, which parents and partners in bed are most likely to discover, there are also other signs and symptoms that will be felt by the teeth grinder. If you wake up in the morning with a pounding headache or a sore jaw, chances are, you might be suffering from bruxism. You may also suffer from earaches, toothaches and unconscious clenching of the teeth during daytime, commonly after waking up. These symptoms are brought about by the pressure of the upper teeth grinding against the upper teeth.

Consequences

Grinding teeth commonly leads to decayed, fractured, loose, worn-out, sensitive or missing teeth. This is because the grinding together of the teeth causes the enamel to be eroded. If you take a peek into chronic teeth grinders, you’ll see that the white enamel covers of their teeth have completely eroded away. Instead, you are more likely to see yellowish and softer dentin. The back teeth no longer have its cusps and the natural contours of healthy teeth, replaced by a somewhat flat surface instead, as if someone has filed it or rubbed sandpaper over it. Meanwhile, the anterior teeth’s biting surfaces are often damaged too.

However, teeth damage is not the only problem in bruxism because teeth grinding can also cause various changes in physical appearance, leading to low self-esteem and low self-confidence. For instance, being a chronic teeth grinder can give you less appealing teeth, which will make you more conscious of your smile. Also, bruxism continuously erodes the teeth, making them shorter. Consequently, this makes the upper and lower jaws and the nose and chin more proximal to each other when the mouth is closed. This makes the chin recede and skin to bag below the eyes and around the lips, making you look relatively older. Lastly, teeth grinding also induce extreme use of muscles. Thus, the facial muscles tend to enlarge, specifically the jowl muscles, creating a square jaw. Fortunately, these conditions can be prevented by purchasing mouth guard for grinding teeth.

Risk Factors of Bruxism

Medical experts agree that there is no known reason as to why teeth grinding occurs. However, several risk factors are often thought to predispose this medical condition. Having an abnormal bite, having crooked or missing teeth and having sleeping problems are thought to cause teeth grinding. In a study conducted in Tokyo Medical and Dental University, it shows that alcohol intake in women can also dramatically increase the potential of bruxism although alcohol intake in men didn’t show the same results. Stressful situations are also seemed to cause teeth grinding. According to Andrew S. Kaplan, a temporomandibular joint expert and former president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain, people tend to grind their teeth in sleep during stress or in changes in their lives including financial crisis, divorce or having a baby. When they get accustomed to these stressful situations, the grinding also stops.

According to Noshir Mehta, director of Craniofacial Pain Center established at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, the reason why teeth grinding out of stress come out at night is because majority of the tension an individual feels tend to seep out at nighttime. This is because the higher centers of the brain that keep it in line in daytime are sleeping.

Treatment Methods

The interventions for bruxism are commonly divided into two sections. The first being the reversible treatment method and the second is the irreversible treatment method. Other treatments for bruxism also include voluntarily disengaging the teeth in the daytime and using appliances such as mouth guards for grinding teeth that occlude nocturnal muscle activity are effective. Soft splints, behavior modification, electromyographic biofeedback and appliances to relax hard muscles are also being used today. Nevertheless, a mouth guard for grinding teeth is considered to be the most popular method because of its accessibility and ease of use. To help you choose, here are three top three mouth guard for grinding teeth that receive the highest ratings from users:

Anti-Teeth Grinding Mouth Guard Reviews

1. Custom Dual Laminate Teeth Night Grinding Guard – Although more expensive than the typical night guards, users state that this definitely worth the money they paid for. Boasting two separate materials to form a single mouth guard for grinding teeth, it has 1mm of soft interior and 2mm of hard exterior. The soft interior is made basically to ensure patient’s comfort while the hard interior is made to ensure that it is durable and lasts longer than most mouth guards. It is approved by the FDA and latex free, which is good news to those with latex allergies. Custom created under the scrutinizing supervision of a dentist that has been in practice for more than thirty years, this will most definitely help decrease your nocturnal bruxism.

2.  TotalGard Original StressGard Night Guard - This one size fits all mouth guard is free from any phthalate substances, making it safe and toxic-free.

Designed by an orthodontists, it boasts a patented and flexible groove, which gets rid of tension in and surrounding the jaw. It is cost-effective and convenient as you no longer have to boil or mold the night guard.

3. Plackers Grind-no-More Teeth Grinding Guard – With 10 pieces of disposable mouth guards for grinding teeth that you can use for up to three times, this is an effective treatment to prevent bruxism while sleeping. It is thin and flexible, even allowing you to speak while using it.

This pack lasts around 30 days which should give you adequate time for your body to “learn” the correct jaw position and adjust to prevent teeth grinding.

References:

1. Nissani, M. (2000), “Symptoms, Signs, and Consequences of Bruxism”, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies Website [online].

2. American Dental Association (2005), “Do You Grind Your Teeth?”, JADA vol. 136.

3. Beck, M. (2008), “The Daily Grind: When Stress Sets Your Teeth on Edge”, Online Wall Street Journal, Health Journal.

4. Baba, K., et. Al.  (2003), “Risk Factors for Sleep Bruxism in Japanese Dental Students”, The Journal Of Applied Research; Volume 3 No.4 Fall 2003.

5.  Marcauteanu, C., et. al. (2003), “Treatment of Bruxism”,  Timisoara Medical Journal; Number 1 Year 2003