When you have bruxism, this means you grind or clench your teeth on a regular basis. Without treatment, this could damage your teeth and leave your smile vulnerable to painful infections and more. Fortunately, your Leawood, KS, dentist can treat bruxism and protect your smile with a noninvasive oral appliance.
The Causes of Chronic Teeth Grinding
Why do we develop chronic teeth grinding? This could happen due to issues that upset the balance of your bite and strain the jaw joints, including missing teeth, malocclusion, injury, or issues with the growth and development of your jaw and the eruption of the teeth. Untreated TMJ disorder could be a factor, as could high levels of stress in your daily life. Warning signs could include jaw pain, facial aches, headaches and migraines, aches in the neck and shoulders, and tooth sensitivity and toothaches. When you experience these potential warning signs of bruxism, then contact our team today to learn more.
The Damage to Your Smile
The pressure on your teeth from bruxism can actually chip and crack teeth, and also wear down outer structure too, so teeth appear smaller or uneven. Even minor damage also exposes the sensitive inner structure to bacteria, allowing painful tooth decay and infection to develop, which causes worsening pain and an increased risk of tooth loss. Our team can not only treat bruxism to prevent grinding episodes, but we can offer dental bonding or even lifelike crowns to repair the damage and restore beauty and balance to your bite again.
Treatment with a Custom Appliance
Treatment varies, for some we may recommend bonding, contouring, or crowns to improve bite balance and ease strain. We could correct misalignment with braces or aligners, and we could replace missing teeth with a prosthetic. You can also take steps to attempt to ease stress levels in your life, and use a warm wet washcloth to the side of the face to ease tension. But with an oral appliance, we can offer immediate relief.
The device will look and fit like a mouthguard, and is worn nightly. We custom-make them based on digital images we take of your smile. Each one fits comfortably and helps shift the jaw to prevent grinding episodes, and also puts a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to avoid further damage to them. This can also help treat underlying TMJ disorder as well.
If you have any questions about how our team will treat bruxism, then contact our team today to learn more!
Do You Have Questions About Treating Teeth Grinding?
Contact Dreem Dentistry in Leawood, KS by calling 913-681-5500 to learn more about putting a stop to grinding/clenching and preventing major damage to your smile.
