Mouthguards/Nightguards Park Ridge

At Complete Health Dentistry of Park Ridge, we understand that your teeth face many potential dangers. Many of those threats come from oral diseases, such as cavities and gum disease. We offer preventive dentistry to protect your teeth from these. However, there are other threats that can chip, crack, or even knock out your teeth. We protect your teeth by offering mouthguards and nightguards. Mouthguards protect your teeth from external trauma while nightguards protect your teeth from the destruction that comes from teeth clenching and grinding, especially at night.

If you are looking to protect your teeth from these types of traumatic damage, Complete Health Dentistry of Park Ridge can help. Dr. Mark Kuchta will listen to your concerns, and recommend the right type of guard for your teeth.

If you participate in sports on a regular basis, even amateur sports that you don’t consider competitive, it’s a good idea to get a custom mouthguard. A mouthguard will protect your teeth from the damage that comes from collisions that are either part of the sport or come during accidents whenever people are pushing themselves to the limit during a competition.

Mouthguards can protect against many types of injuries related to sports participation including:

By absorbing some of the force from impacts to your mouth and jaw, mouthguards can protect your mouth from some of the trauma. In addition, mouthguards give your teeth something soft to impact, rather than impacting each other. This helps you avoid tooth trauma that can cause problems, from knocked out teeth to bruised teeth. Most people didn’t know that a tooth can bruise, but this is one of the things that can cause your tooth to discolor after trauma.

Under high impact forces, teeth can easily cut through soft tissues, including tongue, cheeks, gums, lips, or face. Mouthguards can also protect against jaw trauma by keeping the impact pressure from transferring to your jaw joints.

It’s important to remember that research shows mouthguards don’t provide significant protection against concussions.

People should wear mouthguards when participating in most sports. This includes:

It might not seem as if all these sports require a mouthguard. You might be surprised at the number of noncontact sports in this list. However, it’s important to understand that mouth trauma can come when you least expect it. For example, every year thousands of children and adults suffer serious orofacial injuries when bicycling.

There are three common types of mouthguards available:

Stock mouthguards are those that you wear as you buy them from the store. Boil-and-bite mouthguards are soft plastic that you put in boiling water, then bite into to form around your teeth. Sometimes, these might also have a hard plastic exterior and/or divider between the arches. Custom mouthguards are professionally designed to fit your teeth and mouth. They are made from sturdy material and designed for optimal fit and comfort.

Compared to other mouthguards, custom mouthguards offer better:

Stock mouthguards don’t fit your teeth well, so they provide poor protection against injuries. Boil-and-bite mouthguards can provide better protection because they fit around your teeth properly, securing them. However, these mouthguards aren’t as secure as you might expect. Biting into them can lead to thin places in the cushioning material, which reduces protection. Custom mouthguards provide the best protection modern technology can design.

Stock mouthguards are uncomfortable because they don’t fit your teeth at all. Boil-and-bite mouthguards can fit around your teeth, but they can’t be fit to your bite. Custom mouthguards are more comfortable to wear because they fit properly around your teeth and hold your jaw in the proper position for your bite.

Stock mouthguards get chewed up quickly because they don’t fit well and aren’t sturdy. Boil-and-bite mouthguards are made out of soft material to allow them to form around the teeth when softened. They can also get very thin between teeth, so they can wear out very quickly, sometimes not lasting more than one game or competition. Custom mouthguards are built using the sturdiest of materials. Their proper fit enables them to properly absorb forces so they don’t wear out quickly.

Nightguards protect your teeth from sleep bruxism (teeth clenching and grinding while you sleep). Because you can clench your teeth much harder than you typically bite or chew your food, you can wear your teeth down quickly with this behavior. In addition, bruxism wears your teeth down because they’re contacting each other rather than soft foods or other objects you chew.

Sleep bruxism can come in different forms. Some people simply clench their teeth together. Others clench their teeth together and move their jaws, increasing the wear rate from bruxism. Bruxism could be related to stress. For other people, bruxism is linked to temporomandibular joint disorders ( called TMJ or TMD) or to sleep apnea. Bruxism could be related to lifestyle habits like smoking, alcohol, or caffeine intake. Other times, we don’t know what causes bruxism.

A nightguard separates and cushions your teeth so they’re not damaging each other when you brux. The nightguard is made of durable material so it can stand up to bruxism and continue to protect your teeth for a long time. Other sleep appliances can sometimes perform the role of nightguard, including bite splints for TMD and oral appliances for treating obstructive sleep apnea.

It can sometimes be hard to know if you have sleep bruxism because it happens during sleep. However, you should get evaluated for sleep bruxism if:

If one or more of the above describe your situation, then it’s likely that you have the condition. Getting a nightguard can protect your teeth, helping you to keep them healthy.