When you wake up in the morning, do you often have a headache or tension in your jaw? Does your spouse or partner complain about you grinding your teeth in the morning when you both awake? If so, you are grinding your teeth experiencing bruxism.
Bruxism can lead to many problems:
- Extreme Toothaches
- Sensitivity to chewing food and biting down
- Sensitivity to hot and cold
- Tooth fractures and breaking down
- Tooth loss
How can we tell if you are grinding your teeth? Your teeth get obvious wear from grinding away at each other just as you would if you take 2 like objects and rub them together constantly. There is a good prevention technique that we use and that is a night guard. There are 2 kinds of them. One of them will cover either the entire upper or lower arch and when you do close your jaw, your teeth are not rubbing. The other one is a small one that goes on the front upper 6 teeth and does not allow your back teeth to touch at all, leaving a nice small gap between all teeth when you have it in.
In advanced cases, after you have been seen by your general dentist, if he is unable to treat it due to the severity of the situation, he may refer you to a specialist. If you are experiencing any of these problems, please go in to your dentist and have him evaluate your jaw and see if a night guard would benefit you.
No comments:
Post a Comment