Do you often find yourself feeling restless at night? Perhaps your teeth could be the reason.
Tension can be brought on from your teeth without you even being aware of it. Much like snoring or other behaviors that we experience in our sleep without realizing, many people often grind or clench their teeth while they are sleeping. This can lead to many different dental and overall health issues, from tooth decay to chronic headaches.
A simple yet highly effective solution that can be beneficial, not only for your health, but also prevent the long-term expense of dental and medical bills, is to wear a night guard. A night guard is a durable, protective mouth piece designed to fit comfortably over your upper or lower teeth to safely prevent clenching or grinding behaviors, known as bruxism.
What are the benefits of Night Guards?
When we grind or clench our teeth at night while we are asleep, we are wearing down the enamel of our teeth. The enamel is the protective outer layer of our teeth, and once damaged it does not regenerate on its own. This can lead to overly-sensitive teeth, as well as making us more prone to cavities, tooth decay or gum disease.
Wearing a night guard prevents the upper and lower teeth from touching, safeguarding against the destructive damage of grinding and protecting the enamel of our teeth.
- Prevents Damage to the Teeth.
Wearing a night guard not only helps to maintain our tooth enamel, which is the tooth’s natural, first-line of defense, but it can also prevent us from unknowingly causing direct damage to our teeth while we are asleep. Grinding can cause our teeth to chip, break or wear down over time. It can also cause dental fillings that you may have previously received to fall out, resulting in repeated trips to the dentist, along with further time and money spent getting those fillings replaced.
Night guards can also help to keep our teeth in alignment. Preventing the need for braces over time from developing an overbite or underbite due to improper movement and misalignment during sleep.
- Prevents TMJ Pain
The TMJ, (Temporomandibular Joint), is the hinge joint of your jaw. Many people who grind or clench their teeth suffer from pain, inflammation or popping in their jaw, referred to as TMD, or Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction.
TMD sufferers may find it difficult at times to eat when enjoying foods that are a bit chewy or tough. They may also experience arthritis like pain in their jaw from time to time, especially in the early mornings, late at night, or after strenuous activity or restlessness. Continued grinding and clenching of the teeth during sleep can further complicate this disorder, so wearing a night guard can be a great way to relieve or prevent this type of jaw pain.
- Prevents Aches and Pains
Toothaches from grinding and clenching are fairly common, but this behavior can also affect other parts of the body, leading to headaches or other types of health problems from poor sleep quality. If you’ve ever woken up from a nights sleep with neck pain, headaches, earaches or body pains, bruxism could be the culprit.
Wearing a night guard that is specifically, custom-molded to your mouth can make for a comfortable alternative to those awful morning pains from “waking up on the wrong side of the bed”.
- Prevents Other Bad Sleeping Habits.
Better comfort means better sleep. If you are not exerting effort on grinding, biting and clenching through the night, you are more likely to sleep peacefully and calmly. This can help to curb other negative sleeping habits such as snoring, restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, late night hunger cravings and sleepwalking, to name a few. If you suffer from any of these restless behaviors at night, keeping you from your beauty rest, a mouth guard could potentially help.
Night Guards are both inexpensive and safe, and proven highly effective in the protection and prevention of many dental and health issues. They can greatly improve sleep, daytime focus and awareness and maintain the natural health and beauty of your smile.