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Hsquared asked in HealthDental · 1 decade ago

Has anyone any experience of mouth guards to prevent teeth grinding?

I have just been to the dentist thinking I had a bad tooth, instead she thinks the pain is from my jaw and is due to teeth grinding in my sleep. I know I do it and quite badly as my sister has woken me up to stop me when we are away on holiday together.

As well as the jaw pain I also get episodes of cluster headache.

Has anyone used a mouth guard to stop teeth grinding? Did it work? Did it help with the cluster headaches? Does it take a long time to get used to it and does it affect your sleep?

Update:

Hi Luca - thanks for a brilliant explanation - I'm not so sure about how to find the cause though - my sister says I've done since was a child (she is 14 years older!) I'm now 52 so it's a wonder I have any teeth left at all! I'm going back to the dentist next week for an extensive series of X-Rays and as that will be a longer appointment I hope to have more time to talk to her about it.

2 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes, bruxism(teeth grinding) can lead to jaw pain and headaches, especially in the morning time. A mouth guard is very useful for many reasons.one of the most important is that it prevents your teeth from getting smaller and smaller because of the grinding(causing a lot of damage to your appearance and your mouth's functionality+if you do it long enough, your pulp could be exposed or best case scenario, u'll suffer from toothaches). Another reason, and the most important one if you ask me, is that it helps your tmj(temporomandibular joint-trust me, you don't want to have problems with your tmj-i have them, i grind my teeth too).using the mouth guard may improve your simptoms or eliminate them, but you have to find out what the cause of your grinding is.It's usually because of stress associated with an occlusal dysfunction (your biting pattern is wrong). I postponed getting one myself and now i regret it a lot.my canines have no cusps anymore and a lot of my teeth are worn out+they have a higher than normal degree of mobility.Some of my friends used them and got rid of this "habbit".it shouldn't take a long time to get used to(i had one that was not for grinding-i wore it after i had my braces taken off- and i was ok with it) and it won't affect your sleep.if your dentist says you should get it, do it.cheers! :) PS: you should really look for the cause instead of dealing with the effect alone

    Source(s): 5th year student in dental school.
  • Susan
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    Get rid of the stress in your life that's causing you to grind your teeth (in your sleep) in the first place.

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