Tooth Grinding:

OCCLUSAL SPLINTS FOR BRUXISM OR CLENCHING

1. PURPOSE: The purpose of this therapy is to relieve undue stresses on the teeth and jaws from clenching and bruxing habits that occur during night time sleep cycles.

2. RATIONALE: If you continue to brux your teeth while wearing the splint, biomechanics of the splint prevent significant forces from being generated to your jaw.  Many patients wearing the splint will disrupt the grinding cycle or at least decrease its frequency.  If you do continue to brux while wearing the splint, the forces are absorbed by the splint and will protect the teeth from continued wear and possible fracture and breakage of fillings.

3. WEARING SPLINT: We will have you wear the splint at night while sleeping. Some patients need to wear the splint every night in order to protect the teeth from further wear.  In some cases you may only need to wear the splint two or three nights a week in order to keep the bruxing cycle under control.

4. CLEANING SPLINT AND TEETH: Brushing the inside and outside of the splint and soaking for 20 minutes in a denture cleaning solution is recommended. When traveling, brushing is usually adequate when soaking is inconvenient. Soaking the appliance all day can result in staining between the laminated layers of plastic.

5. Please call if you have any questions or difficulty.