We encourage our patients to wear custom mouth guards for several different reasons. If you play sports or participate in activities that could cause trauma to your face, we recommend wearing athletic mouth guards to help prevent oral injuries.
In addition, if you grind your teeth at night, you may have a condition called bruxism. Bruxism wears away the chewing surfaces of the teeth. This can lead to cavity formation or other dental problems. In severe cases, bruxing can affect the temporomandibular joint. For these cases we recommend the use of a night guard to protect both the teeth and the temporomandibular joint.
A custom mouth guard is made at our office. First, an impression is taken of your teeth. The impression is then sent to the dental laboratory which will create the mouth guard. Two weeks later, your mouth guard will be ready for try-in and delivery.
Objective of sports mouth guards and nightguards
A night guard will not cure bruxism. Nightguards are there to protect your teeth until we can find and eliminate the reason why you are grinding your teeth. Grinding is linked to stress factors in many cases.
Your dental guard needs to be thoroughly cleaned and dried after use to prevent bacterial growth. As soon as you take it out of your mouth, rinse it with cool water and brush it with your toothbrush. Rinse and dry your guard and keep it in its own ventilated box and make sure it is stored away from any heat source. Heat might make it lose its shape.
A well-fitted mouth guard fits your mouth snugly and should be comfortable, it should not fall out of your mouth.