 Hello everybody, Andrea Maesky here with dental lmobile hygiene So I am a dental hygienist that goes to people's homes and nursing homes and offices to clean their teeth and What I'm going to be talking to you guys about today are nightguards and believe it or not This topic came from one of those groups on Facebook. I think it was like a mom's group like a community group Where somebody was asking about nightguards. They were saying that their child Grimes their teeth at night. I believe their child was six or seven and they were asking well What do I do? You know what happens and it's always amazing to see all of the comments because people With the best of intentions might feel like they know the answer But they might be steering the person in the wrong direction So I kind of get these at these Topic ideas from things that I see on on on the groups and that I wish that other people knew about so then they can make it informed decisions so Basically, I'm going to talk to you guys about nightguards overall Okay, so but first I want to kind of answer that question that somebody had posed in a Facebook group So she was asking, you know, what does she do her child is six or seven? I can't remember and they were asking My child grinds their teeth at night. How do I get them to stop? What do I do? Are they going to wear away their teeth like this can't be a good thing? Well What I tell all of my patients are yes, some children do grind their teeth especially at night But you can't give them a nightguard because their mouth is still moving. It's still growing You can't put something in the mouth that is still trying to grow because then it can almost limit that growth over time We would never put a nightguard in a child's mouth nightguards are for Usually people 18 years or older now typically children who do a grind their teeth at night They will stop at some point. So yes, it sounds horrible. You might be concerned, but we really can't do anything about it It's more of a normal thing think about it when your child is going through growing pains You can't really do anything about it, right? You just have to let it run its course Well grinding is similar to that you can't do anything about it in a child But you should still have them looked at by either your dentist or your dental hygienist to see if they are starting to wear away their tooth or teeth typically in children I see There might be a little bit of wear but nothing to be concerned about But if I notice that the teeth are starting to wear away quite quickly then then we might even want to put those temporary crowns over the teeth to You know how to prevent that from happening or put a compass it over top of it So they're grinding on that compass it so even if they wear it wear it away They're not wearing away more of their teeth if that makes sense But I can help you guys kind of explain that more if you Weren't too sure if you have any questions about that just let me know So the short answer is when somebody tells me that their child is doing that at night and it sounds horrible I tell them they shouldn't be doing it for much longer It's just some children do and some children don't you can't do too much about it But let me have a look at their teeth to make sure they're not you know Grinding them down to too much Now for adults that's different you might be 18 you might be 20 you might be 25 And you might be waking up in the morning and saying ow like my jaw really really hurts Like what is happening? If you if that's happening to you then you're likely Grinding your teeth at night and you need a night guard Even if you go to your dentist or your dental hygienist and they say to you Oh, wow your enamel is starting to wear away like on the top parts of the teeth like kind of like the top parts here Hmm. I think you're grinding at night because that's a clear sign of that It doesn't matter if you're 20 30 40 50 it could happen to anybody often we see it in college students because They have to go through so much, you know, they have they have exams They have so much to think about that they might even start to clench their teeth at night even if they haven't before even if you're 55 you might start now Whereas you haven't before but you do need a night guard if that's the case because if you don't have one all of all of those pounds of pressure All of that pressure is not a good thing think about it this way when we chew our food That's typically 20 to 40 pounds of pressure, you know, but if you're clenching at night that can be 250 pounds Over and over and over again of doing this 250 pounds no, I'm not kidding So a night guard that is something that you do need because what a night guard actually does So it fits over the teeth like this. So that's why I do have the picture here So this is what your typical night guard looks like it could be a little bit thinner It could be a little bit thicker it depends on the patient It goes over the top teeth either the top teeth or the bottom teeth depending on the anatomy of your mouth Usually the top teeth because you're your top, you know part of your mouth does not It does not move the bottom part obviously does because that's the part that you used to chew talk eat everything Right, so it makes more sense to put it on the top because that Top part, you know stays the same right all the time So what happens is it fits over the teeth like this? And that is something that you wear at nighttime and notice how there's a little space under the teeth here I don't know if you guys can see that but that helps to stop from the top teeth and the bottom teeth from Grinding side to side and that's what causes your teeth to wear away over time But if there's something in its place You're grinding on the night guard so the effects are not the same so in some cases it doesn't stop You from grinding but it will help you from wearing away the the enamel over time Which is so important if you have insurance This is typically covered a night guard depending on where you live is about five hundred dollars But if you have insurance they usually cover one every five years so not every single time But every five years because night guards don't last forever. It depends on the patient I've had patients that need a new night guard every three months because they clench so much They literally eat through it. So imagine if you don't have the night guard your your enamel would be in bad shape, right? Because again, that's 250 pounds Or I have patients that get a new night guard every four to five years just because it's starting to look Pretty old right so but everybody's different But you do need a night guard plus a night guard can help to keep things aligned properly So when you wake up your jaw will not be sore because it just helps you keep your jaw back A little bit it's kind of hard to show you guys without actually having one in my mouth But it does help to keep the jaw back Ever so slightly so it doesn't tense up As much so if you're dentist or the dental hygienist tells you that you need a night guard You do need a night guard. Trust me If you don't have one so what happens if you don't get a night guard is your muscles over time They will become more tense and more sore. You don't just as an adult you don't just stop Grinding you will keep doing it unless you have a night guard to help to stop that from happening The enamel will wear away and once you wear away enamel you cannot bring that enamel back So trust me you need a night card. Um, and often people ask me Well, if I just don't have a night guard or if I don't wear it every night What can happen? Well, uh, remember how I said that it's 250 pounds of pressure That can crack the teeth. So any teeth Can crack at any time and once you have a crack As you can imagine, that's not a good thing The tooth could crack down the middle if that happens We might not be able to save the tooth because there's nothing to hold on So that's a very extreme example obviously, but you never want a tooth to crack That's a lot more expensive to fix than a night guard. There are night guards You can get over the counter about 20 30 dollars They work But a very limited period of time like I'm talking overnight. It's not something you want to wear consistently because it's not Molded to your mouth. So that's another thing like this night guard here In order to make a night guard you would have to go to the dentist Who would take molds of your teeth on top and bottom and then that gets sent to the lab And then the lab makes the night guard. It takes about a week or two weeks For either the top teeth or the bottom teeth. So you do not have to wear two you would only wear the one overnight every single night And again, the lab takes about two weeks So for you to go in to get the night guard made to take the impressions of the teeth that takes about 10 to 20 minutes That's it. They would send you home They would bring you back in about two weeks when the night guard is back from the lab They would make sure that it fits properly They would tell you how to use it typically in a night guard You would put it in a bowl of warm water for about 10 to 20 seconds to help to loosen it up And then you would put it in your mouth after that. So you would do your whole Oral hygiene um nightly routine first and then put the night guard in after that And then that's it and then once you wake up in the morning, um, you should at least Rinse it with water and then put it back in the container. Um, leave the lid open because if it's not dry You don't want all of that in there, right? So leave the lid open. Um, you could even use Toothpaste on it, you know to to make sure it's as nice as possible because if you're thinking Thinking about it. That's been in the mouth, right the whole time. So toothpaste is actually a good idea and that's it so Did I answer all of your questions you guys? So this is what it looks like If you're an adult and you grind it's time to get that looked at you need a night guard If you're a child you don't need one because we wouldn't give you one anyway Because you shouldn't be grinding for much longer. So children don't grind forever It's just some do and some don't So I hope that helped if you guys have any questions, please let me know Because I might have forgotten to answer some commonly asked questions So if you guys need anything, let me know and I'll see you guys in the next one Thank you guys so much for watching