by Andrew Trenton Weil
Over a million US citizens wake up each morning in significant pain from nighttime teeth grinding and clenching (bruxism). Does the fact that these people remain in pain every day mean they don’t have health insurance? No, actually most of these people have health insurance, and they have dentists. Unfortunately, while many dentists are expert at preventing tooth damage and repairing cavities and chipped or worn teeth, most dental schools don’t teach anything about the psychology of habits, and long-term tooth grinding and clenching is a habit most people would like to be rid of.
So what does it take to kick the nighttime teeth grinding and clenching habit? As you might suspect from thinking about habits such as smoking, drinking, over-eating, or nail biting, the answer is different for different people. The “solution” most often recommended by dentists these days is a custom-made mouth guard.
The various custom mouth guards that dentists recommend, typically cost between $500 and $800. Many dentists disagree as to which is the “best” type of mouth guard to use. Some are thin plastic, vacuum-molded from a hot thin sheet of plastic over a plaster replica of your upper teeth. Some thicker acrylic cast in a mold made from an impression of both your upper and lower teeth.
Lots of people take their dentist’s recommendation and plunk down between $500 and $800 for a custom-made mouth guard. Once you have paid for yours, you get to find out if you are someone whose nighttime clenching gets worse or better when you wear a mouth guard.
“Wait a minute” you might say, “did you say my clenching could get worse?” It certainly could. You see, the problem is that while mouth guards obviously protect your teeth, they don’t necessarily make you bite less. The nature of the tooth grinding and clenching habit for some people is that a mouth guard is more of an annoyance to be chewed through than a signal to relax.
Most mouth guards are made to sit between your upper and lower molars, and spread the load if you clench your teeth, the idea being that even if you keep clenching, the mouth guard will help you do less damage. Sometimes this may work. Sometimes the damage done becomes much worse with a mouth guard.
Some brands of mouth guards (for instance the “NTI”) are made to snap on to your front teeth and keep your molars from touching when you bite. The theory here is that such a front-teeth mouth guard will feel so different when you bite on it that your mind will know (even subconsciously) that something is not right when you bite, so you will not bite down hard. There are cases where that seems to work. Unfortunately, for the cases where it does not work, biting down on a front-tooth-only guard such as the NTI can cause serious damage.
Fortunately, there are many ways to kick the teeth grinding and clenching habit other than sticking a mouth guard in your mouth. Some methods don’t cost anything to try, some are moderately expensive to try, and some can be rather expensive to try. In some cases the cost is less of an issue because of a money-back guarantee, but unfortunately some of the expensive things to try have no such guarantee. Different methods that people have successfully used to get themselves out of the teeth grinding and clenching habit include: massage, diet changes, biofeedback, hypnosis, changing to a new pillow or mattress pad, using a soothing sound machine, chiropractic work, meditation, and other positive psychology practices.
A custom-made mouth guard from a dentist is one of the most expensive possible solutions you can try for teeth grinding and clenching. Not only that, but custom mouth guards come with no money-back guarantee. This may be a good deal for your dentist, but it’s probably not a great deal for you. If you want to try a mouth guard, you might first want to try an over-the-counter inexpensive one from a pharmacy.
About the Author:
Monitor your nighttime clenching with the SleepGuard EMG measurement headband. It is the best way to study the effectiveness of varied things you try in your desire to stop the
teeth grinding and clenching habit. Used in
biofeedback mode, the SleepGuard headband can also be used with or without hypnosis to help you reduce or eliminate your nighttime teeth grinding and clenching.