Night Guards in Gretna, LA
Did you know that you can bite with three times the force when you are sleeping as when you are awake? Your jaw muscles can exert enormous force. You may even feel tooth sensitivity upon waking due to the nighttime pressure of grinding.
Have you ever awakened with a sore jaw and felt that your jaw muscles ran a marathon while you were dreaming? The reason is that many people grind and clench their teeth when asleep. Night guards are a way of protecting your teeth as well as preventing some of the most destructive grinding and clenching during the night.
What is a Night Guard?
A night guard is a piece of hardened plastic that is specifically made for your teeth as well as your bite. Dr. Schafer's night guards have two purposes:
First, they are made so that you will grind into the guard rather than into your teeth. The hardened plastic is strong enough to withstand the forces you place on your mouth at night, but it is also soft enough so that it doesn't hurt your teeth or dental crowns or fillings. Over time, your night guard will wear away and need to be replaced in the same way that your tires on your car will need to be replaced. However, replacing a night guard is much cheaper and less painful than fixing a broken tooth or broken crown.
Secondly, night guards help prevent the most destructive grinding by triggering natural reflexes that your body has. To test this reflex, try clenching down on your front teeth and then your back teeth. You will notice that you can't clench down nearly as hard on your front teeth as you do on your back teeth. Your night guard will be custom made to help engage this reflex when you are sleeping so that your muscles can relax when you are sleeping.
Store-Bought Night Guards
Many people use store-bought night guards to help save money. Dr. Schafer is a proponent of these economical night guards if they work well for you. These night guards do a good job of protecting the teeth. However, many times they are soft which can cause many muscle problems. When your jaw notices something soft between the teeth, often times the jaw muscles want to contract and grind reflexively. If you use one of these over the counter night guards and notice any jaw pain, please discontinue immediately. The jaw pain will worsen and prevent you from sleeping well.
Contact our Gretna Dentist Office for an Evaluation
Do you wake up with pain in your jaws or do you have of dental work that needs to be protected? If so, please call us today at NOLA Dentures and General Dentistry for a night guard evaluation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Night guards a generally a hard acrylic or softer plastic that is custom-formed to your mouth. You may wear a night guard if you clench and grind your teeth at night or if you have many crowns in your mouth that need to be protected.
Night guards serve two functions. First, they should help protect your teeth at night time when you can clench up to three times as hard as during when you are awake. Second, they should help relax your muscles during the night by engaging your muscle reflexes from your teeth.
Protection
Tooth protection is relatively straight forward and makes sense. Night guards cover either the upper or lower teeth and prevent the opposite side from wearing into the side that the night guard is protected. While many night guards are hard, the acrylic is not as hard a tooth meaning that the night guard will wear down instead of your teeth. A well used night guard may only last a few years, and I've seen some only last six months. However, replacing a night guard on a regular basis is still much cheaper and less painful than having a broken tooth which is why most people opt to replace it on a regular basis.
Muscle Relaxation
Now this one isn't as obvious to most people, but hard night guards can relax your jaw muscles. To prove it, try this experiment:
- Clench down on your back teeth as hard as you can. Relax after 10 seconds.
- Clench down on your front teeth as hard as you can. Relax after 10 seconds
Now you might have noticed that you can't clench down on your front teeth nearly as hard as on your back teeth. This is a reflex that helps prevent you from hurting your front teeth. A hard night guard helps engage this reflex when you are grinding at night time which helps relax your muscles.
A hard night guard is proven to be the better option for most patients. The reason is that a soft night guard makes the mouth and muscles want to chew on it at night time as if it were a piece of gum. This chewing can leave the mouth sore the next morning. Hard night guards also generally last longer than soft night guards as hard ones can take more of a beating.
However, some patients do not find hard night guards comfortable and will not wear them. For these patients, soft night guards might make sense as the guard is still protecting the teeth. Generally, for these patients, we pay extra close attention for the first few weeks to make sure that the jaw and the jaw muscles are adapting well to the mouth guard.
Night guards are usually between 1 mm to 5 mm thick (1/20 to 1/5 of an inch). Generally, they are thicker in the front than in the back as the jaw acts like a hinge where the back 
teeth separate less than the front teeth upon opening. Usually when people ask us how thick they are, they want to know if they are comfortable. We find that custom made night guards can be very comfortable to wear when they are made and adjusted properly. Sometimes after being fitted you will need to return for another appointment as your jaw will adapt to them.
The picture shown to the right is a typical night guard. While it looks thick, half of the height is where the teeth fit in. For this patient, we made a lower night guard as it fit better with her teeth. After she started wearing it, she found her jaw more relaxed in the morning and her teeth didn't feel as sensitive as she stopped grinding as hard at night.
Meet Our Doctor:
Russell Schafer DDS
Dr. Russell Schafer is happy and proud to call New Orleans his home. He was born in New Orleans, raised in Pearl River, and attended Jesuit High School and graduated in 2003. He went to Rice University in Houston where he graduated with a bachelors and masters in mechanical engineering degree. While at Rice, Dr. Schafer was a a cheerleader for all four years, active in Rice Catholic Student Association as well as student government, and tutored fellow students as well. Before attending dental school, Dr. Schafer spent ...
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