Teeth grinding or clenching your jaw can do damage to your teeth and your jaw joint. While you may curb the urge to clench your jaw when you are awake, you cannot control what you do when you are asleep. At Garrisonville Dental, we want to help our patients protect their teeth from damage with general dentistry. Our patients with bruxism, the term for those who grind their teeth, can get relief with the use of a nightguard.

Bruxism can lead to serious damage of the teeth. Your jaw muscles can exert hundreds of pounds of pressure on your teeth. While these muscles are designed to help you chew, when there is no food to chew, this pressure is put directly on the teeth. This can cause cracks in the teeth, wear down tooth enamel and lead to other dental problems. It can also put stress on the jaw joint, causing pain and discomfort.

Protect Your Teeth from Teeth Grinding

It is difficult to prevent teeth grinding or clenching your jaw while you sleep, but you can protect your teeth from damage. At Garrisonville Dental, we can custom design a dental nightguard that fits over your teeth while you sleep. This puts a layer of protection between the upper and lower sets of teeth. It can also reposition the jaw to relieve stress on the jaw joint. Not only does this protect your teeth and jaw, it can stop the annoying sound of teeth grinding that may disturb your sleep partner.

If you have jaw pain or have been told that you grind your teeth at night, you may be suffering from bruxism. Protect your jaw and teeth from further damage. Contact Garrisonville Dental today to schedule an exam and consultation with one of our dentists to discuss treatment. We can create a comfortable, customized dental nightguard to protect your smile and relieve discomfort from bruxism.