When you grind your teeth regularly, this nightly occurrence could damage teeth and lead to painful symptoms and complications. Which is why we want to offer treatment for chronic teeth grinding. In today’s blog, your Leawood, KS, dentist talks about how we diagnose and treat bruxism!
The Causes of Bruxism
What causes adults to grind their teeth so frequently? Nighttime teeth grinding could be due to a high level of stress in daily life. Untreated TMJ disorder could be a factor too. For others, issues that upset bite balance and strain the jaw joints could be factors, such as tooth loss, misalignment, injury to the face or jaw, or even issues with the growth of the jaw or the eruption of the teeth. The arrival of wisdom teeth could be a factor too! To ensure we choose the best treatment for your smile, our team will assess the cause and severity of bruxism with a detailed examination.
The Warning Signs of Persistent Teeth Grinding
How do you know if you grind your teeth? For some, a significant other could let them know about teeth grinding in the night. But there are also symptoms that occur during waking hours too. For example, you could experience headaches and migraines, jaw and facial pain, and sensitivity and pain in the teeth. There could be aches in the neck and shoulders too. When you have persistent pain in and around your smile and head, then please see our team right away for a diagnosis. Our team can then find out if you have bruxism and find the best solution to bring relief and protect your smile from cracked, chipped, and worn-down teeth!
Help with an Oral Appliance
For many, we could offer relief with a custom oral appliance. We will take detailed digital images and measurements of your bite and use them to create a 3D impression. With this impression, we can custom-fit an oral appliance to wear while you sleep. The device itself will look and fit much like a mouthguard. However, this will actually gently shift the jaw to ease pressure on the joints and correct underlying factors behind bruxism. This also places a soft barrier between your upper and lower sets of teeth to prevent further damage to your teeth. This helps prevent discomfort and also lowers the risk of tooth decay and infection.
If you have any questions about how our team will diagnose and treat issues like bruxism, then contact our team today to get started.
Schedule a Visit to Stop Your Teeth Grinding
We can offer treatment to bring comfort and relief to your smile without the need for surgery. To learn more about stopping bruxism, call Dreem Dentistry in Leawood, KS, today at (913)681-5500.
