You may have seen many people wearing mouth guards. Those
are typically the sportspersons who want to prevent their teeth from getting
cracked, chipped or broken during the game. However, mouth guards can be used
during the night as well. They are needed to relieve the conditions such as
bruxism and sleep apnea. Now, you may wonder how to sleep with a thick mouth
guard present between both of your jaws. Well, it is just a matter of
instilling the habit.
Night guard for bruxism
Teeth grinding, or bruxism, is a common condition or habit.
Many people do it in the day time and there are many who do it during sleep.
The reasons for doing it in the night are usually the same as those for doing
it in the day time. However, the only difference here is that you can control
the grinding of your teeth during the day. However, it can be pretty difficult
to do so when you are asleep. While you can always work on the root cause to
treat the reason you are grinding your teeth, it would also be important to
prevent the damage to your teeth due bruxism on immediate basis. For this
purpose, you can use a mouth guard. The mouth guard that you use during the
night to treat bruxism is a type of night guard. When you wear this night
guard, the pressure generated due to clenching is absorbed into the flexible
plastic of the night guard. This way, the teeth remain safe.
Night guard for sleep apnea
While you may be aware of CPAP machine to treat sleep apnea,
it may be interesting for you that you can find relief from this condition with
the help of a specific mouth guard which is made to treat sleep apnea. All you
have to do is to wear this mouth guard during sleep. Sleep apnea is the
condition associated with the expansion of soft tissues in the throat when they
become relaxed when you sleep. This expansion results in the obstruction of
airflow in the throat area. As a result, the sleep quality is greatly affected.
The mouth guard used to prevent sleep apnea basically aims at keeping the upper
jaw in forward position. This position can ensure an open airflow through the
throat by keeping the expanded tissues from blocking the way.
If you think that you are in the need of a night guard for
any reason, you can visit your dentist to explore different options.
