Over half of the population either clenches or grinds their teeth in their sleep and most people are completely unaware that they are doing it!
About “Bruxism”
Both the short and long term side effects of clenching and grinding, are not only deleterious but multi-fold as well. As basic of an instinct as survival is, most of the muscles around our jaws and head are designed for one primary function: to chew food. That being said, a great amount of force is generated by these muscles which translates to the teeth being subjected to a tremendous amount of pressure.
Over time, this pressure can lead to random localized or generalized tooth pain, migraines, headaches, muscular pain, jaw joint pain (commonly referred to as TMJ), tooth wear, chipped teeth, premature wear or breakdown of dental work, premature aging and other potentially pain inducing scenarios that are unpleasant to experience and costly to repair.
Nightguards
The good news is, in most cases having a custom fitted nightguard fabricated can completely eliminate any of these problems by simply preventing them from occurring. Relative to the cost of repairing damage and suffering through any pain or loss of sleep that is associated with clenching/grinding, a nightguard is an affordable and extremely effective option to maintaining a healthy, youthful, pain-free way of living.