Night Guard

Night guards prevent injury to your teeth due to clenching and grinding that may occur, either during the day or at night. These habits damage teeth and the muscles in your neck and jaw area causing you to get headaches. Try a night guard if you are one of the unlucky individuals that wake up every morning with a headache and sore muscles. It may alleviate these problems all together.

Uses

Night guards provide a cushion between your teeth, but clenching from stress can still occur so you may still get headaches if the clenching is severe. Many have found that symptoms do disappear and they wake up happier and without headaches.

Who

If you are one of the many people in the world who suffer from stress, you may grind your teeth. A lot of people find out that they do this when their husband or wife lets them know. If so, this could be causing problems that can be eliminated by getting a custom fit-night guard. It can help with the same problem during the day as well. Wear it anytime that you think you may be doing this so that you can save your teeth from damage. The ultimate goal is to stop your teeth from eroding.

Procedure

The procedure will be different depending upon whether you get one made right at the dentist's or if the impressions are sent out to a lab for manufacturing. Cost might be the deciding factor on which option you choose, but the manufactured set will fit better and last a lot longer.

Other than those two options, you could choose to get an NTI. It's also manufactured in a lab and fits right over the front teeth only. This is a very comfortable alternative to the options above.

After

Headaches could stop almost immediately. You will notice that soreness is not as pronounced in the neck and jaw. Most notably though, your teeth will remain intact and be able to stay in your mouth for a lot longer, which is always the best possibility.

What to Expect

Make sure you protect your guard. Animals love to play with them and chew on them because of the material they are made out of.

Test to make sure that you have the right fit for you. Don't worry about how you will look with them in, as you can put them in right before sleep and take them out first thing upon waking. Spouses are usually happy to see them be put in place so that they can get a good night's sleep and not have to listen to the noise of you grinding away.