San Ramon Cosmetic Dentistry Blog | Sean Michael Anderson, D.D.S.

Are you feeling stressed out, worried about family, work, and/or money? With today's state of the economy many are feeling overloaded. Do you go to bed feeling completely exhausted only to wake up feeling just about the same way, because you spent most of the night tossing and turning?

Dr. Nancy Rosen, who appeared on "Good Morning America" explained that since the recession hit the number of people who grind their teeth has also increased. Over the last five years Americans who grind their teeth has risen from 5-6% to about 12% of the population. A lot of the time these people do not even know they are doing this. Spouses can often hear their partners grinding their teeth in the middle of the night. Other symptoms to look out for are, waking up with a headache, tension in the head and neck, sore jaw after chewing crunchy foods or chewing gum, chipping of front teeth, and/or a change of your bite.

To help stop the grinding, which is also known as bruxism, is to eliminate stress by using exercise, meditation, relaxation therapy and even hypnosis. While working on reducing stress it is a good idea to also protect your teeth. Night guards do a very good job protecting the teeth and put the jaw in the good position so a person does minimal damage the appearance of their teeth.

Sure one can go to the local drug store and buy an over the counter mouth guard to help. The problem with this, is they are a boil one size fits all product that is made out of a soft plastic. They usually are made for the upper arch and feel like a football mouthpiece that one has to wear to bed. What ends up happening to these "mouth guards" are that they are not worn leaving the teeth unprotected.

Dr. Anderson can help by custom fitting a mouth guard in a proper position. These custom mouth guards are a streamline hard/soft plastic, made to wear on the lower arch not blocking the airway for a comfortable fit and in the end a good night's sleep.

For more information on this product, call Dr. Anderson's office to see if a night guard is right for you!