What steps do you take to protect your smile? Brushing and flossing your teeth each day helps prevent the accumulation of plaque that can cause decay and disease. But what can you do to protect your smile while you are asleep? If you experience nightly grinding of your teeth, you may wake up each morning with pain in your facial muscles after a night of gnashing your jaw. You may not even know you have this condition until significant harm builds on your teeth. If you suspect your teeth are worse for wear after a night of grinding, let us know so we can help protect your smile when you go to bed.
At your Lake Orion, MI dental practice, we can inspect your smile to tell if you suffer from bruxism. This habit gradually wears away the enamel of your teeth, leaving you susceptible to decay and misaligning your smile. To protect your teeth, we can create a custom oral guard that will separate your teeth as you sleep. By learning more about your options for protecting your smile against wear, you can put an end to your grinding habit!
How Does Bruxism Begin?
Grinding your teeth while you sleep has a variety of causes that can start this habit. You may experience high levels of stress throughout the day that your body copes with by grinding at night. When your teeth do not properly align, your bite can come out of balance and cause you to gnash your teeth as you sleep. By failing to address this issue soon, your smile will begin to change as you lose the healthy surface layer of your teeth. Your facial height can change as you lose the ends of your bite. As cracks and chips build, your teeth expose their insides to oral bacteria and risk receiving cavities or tooth infections.
An Oral Appliance To Treat Your Grinding
When you visit our office, we can take a look at your mouth to determine if you are clenching your teeth. We will take images of your smile to help create a custom oral guard that protects it while you sleep. Made from a BPA-free material, your guard will separate each row of teeth from touching one another. This provides valuable relief as it reduces the tension within your facial muscles and jaw joint. If your damage is severe, we can also explore repairing your teeth with solutions such as dental crowns.
Talk To Your Lake Orion, MI Dentist About Treating Teeth Grinding
We can inspect your smile to help protect it while you sleep. For more information about how we can help treat your grinding habit, please contact Lake Orion Family Dentistry in Lake Orion, MI by calling 248-693-6213.
