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3 Signs You Might Need a Night Guard

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If you grind your teeth at night (a condition called bruxism), you could be doing real, lasting damage to your teeth. Teeth grinding puts pressure on your tooth enamel and can lead to broken, chipped, or even lost permanent teeth.

Nightguards play an important role in the protection of your tooth enamel. Unfortunately, many people who grind their teeth at night are unaware that they’re doing it. You can protect yourself from teeth grinding with nightguards in Bellbrook, OH, but how do you know if you need them? Below are three signs.

1. You Wake Up With Headaches

Tension and pressure from bruxism reverberate up the jaw and into the cheek, head, and neck. This tension can lead to headaches that patients experience when they first wake up in the morning. If you get headaches in the mornings, this could be a sign that you grind your teeth throughout the night.

2. Your Spouse Noticed You Grinding Your Teeth

You may not be able to tell if you’re grinding your teeth at night, but your spouse will likely notice. Teeth grinding creates a noise that bed partners often pick up on. If your spouse has noticed you grinding your teeth, especially if they notice it regularly, see your dentist to get a nightguard.

3. Your Teeth Are Worn Down or Damaged

Grinding your teeth can cause the tooth enamel to become worn or can cause your teeth to become broken. If you have bruxism, you may even notice your permanent teeth becoming loose.

You may not know these are signs of bruxism, but your dentist in Bellbrook, OH, will. Seeing the dentist on a regular basis can help you identify problems like bruxism, so you can get a nightguard. Most dentists recommend that their patients come in for dental appointments every six months. Maintaining this dental exam schedule can help you catch the signs of bruxism early before problems like loose permanent teeth develop.

The professionals at Bellbrook Family Dentistry prioritize patient dental health. Our experienced professionals can recognize problems like damage created by bruxism. To stay on top of your dental health, contact Bellbrook Family Dentistry to make an appointment.

What Can Be Done for My Open Bite? 

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An open bite occurs when your upper teeth no longer touch your lower teeth. This most often occurs near the front of your mouth, causing an anterior open bite, although it may occur in the back of the mouth as well. This condition is malocclusion, which means the teeth are not properly aligned when your mouth is closed. There are several reasons why this may occur in adults, including missing or shifting teeth, facial trauma, tumors in the jaw or mouth areas, or the presence of extra teeth. If you struggle with an open bite, your dentist in Bellbrook, OH, has solutions.

How Do I Know Whether I Have an Open Bite?

An open bite is easy to recognize because it impedes your quality of life. You’ll have trouble biting into a sandwich, and you may develop a speech impediment. If left untreated, your open bite will begin to affect your appearance as well. This happens when your facial structure begins to change as a result of the misalignment between the teeth and the lower jaw. An open bite can make you appear much older than you are.

What Can Be Done for an Open Bite?

There are several ways your dentist may correct your open bite. Treatments include:

  • Braces
  • Aligners
  • Dental Implants
  • Surgery
  • Veneers

When an open bite occurs in adult patients, surgery is usually required to realign the teeth. This may mean extracting adult teeth that have shifted and replacing them with dentures or dental implants to correct the problem.

Is an Open Bite Really That Serious?

It may not seem serious at the time your open bite first occurs, but as time goes by, the condition will only worsen. It will become more difficult to eat the foods you enjoy, and you may put yourself at greater risk of choking because you’re unable to bite foods, such as spaghetti or bacon strips, into small, manageable pieces for easy digestion. Your speech may change as well, and you may find it difficult to clearly pronounce words with ‘S’.

When you’re ready to fix an open bite in Bellbrook, OH, contact Bellbrook Family Dentistry to schedule an appointment. Our friendly and professional staff has a solution that will work for you.