Anxiety-Free Dental Care in
Chicago, Illinois Since 2001
These last 3 months has been horrible for my grinding.
For the first month of the quarantine, my teeth were killing.
My cold sensitivity was off the roof.
Whenever I would drink a cold beverage, I would see stars. I began avoiding cold beverages because of the pain.
Since I’ve been back to work, a lot of my patients have been grinding their teeth. It’s definitely more than normal.
Many people will go to Walgreens and get an off the shelf night guard and expect it to remove the grinding issues.
Whenever your trying to fit a night guard on a patient you want the night guard to do a few things:
1. You want the night guard to fit comfortably but snug. It’s very difficult to achieve that precision with an over the counter night guard. If the night guard is not well fitted, they tend to end up on the floor or tangled up in your hair by the time you wake up.
2. The most important part of the night guard, is that `you want the teeth to touch evenly on the night guard. You want both the right and left side of your mouth to touch at the same time. This is impossible to achieve with an off the shelf night guard. Our mouths and our entire body is not symmetrical. The night guards that are sold off the shelf are about 2 mm thick throughout the entire appliance.
3. The appliance needs to be completely flat and allow the jaw to move freely without any restrictions. It should be like on an ice skating rink. If the appliance locks in the jaw in the appliance many times, this will cause the jaw issues to become worse.
4. Finally the appliance needs to be hard, with no give. A rubbery night guard, will many times, cause muscle pain in the face.
Check out my video, for the exact details on why a professional night guard it the best solution:
If you are experiencing jaw issues and would like to get a personally customized, professionally fitted night guard, please call 773-292-1911.
Floss like a madman!Emilio “Lock Jaw” Couret
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