Teeth Grinding

Teeth grinding, also known as bruxism, is a common condition that involves clenching and grinding the teeth. It’s most often done at night when the patient isn’t even aware of their actions. Left untreated, bruxism can lead to cracked and broken teeth, broken restorations and TMJ problems. We offer treatment of teeth grinding using a custom-fitted nighttime appliance.

If you fail to treat bruxism, it can and will eventually have an impact on your oral health. Bruxism can lead to severe damage of the teeth, TMJ-related pain and stiffness as well as headaches and even earaches. Bruxism can lead to years of other treatments just to fix and repair the damaged teeth. It is best to seek treatment sooner rather than later for your grinding problem.

There are several ways that you can tell if you grind your teeth at night. Bruxism typically occurs at night, so looking for morning-specific signs as well as dental problems can help clue you in. 

Some of these issues include:

• Morning-specific headaches
• Earaches
• Flat-looking teeth
• Broken, cracked or chipped teeth
• Broken or cracked appliances and restorations
• TMJ pain and stiffness
• Toothaches and pain

In order to treat bruxism, we will have you come into the office for an examination. After the exam is complete and we feel you’d benefit from treatment, we take impressions of your teeth and gums. These impressions are then used to make the appliance you’ll wear at night. This appliance is custom-fitted to your smile, so it’s completely comfortable to wear. You will wear this appliance throughout the night to help prevent the effects of bruxism. The appliance works by offering cushioning between the upper and lower teeth so that they cannot come into contact with one another.

If you would like to come into the office for a consultation regarding teeth grinding, call us right away to schedule an appointment.