What Type of Mouth Guard Is Best Suited for Your Specific Needs?
Mouthguards are dental appliances provided for protecting your teeth from injuries for many reasons. Your dentist recommends you wear teeth grinding guard if you frequently clench and grind your teeth when you sleep. Dentists have designed various types of mouthguards for sleeping, mainly because patients are approaching them with different problems. Besides a mouthguard for teeth grinding, dentists also offer the appliance for people involved in contact sports or recreational activities. Mouthguards aim to protect your teeth from impacts either when you are active or sleeping.
Reading on the subject of mouthguards can make you think why you should visit your dentist for the appliance when it is readily available in a drug store or supermarket. You must prefer a personalized appliance from your dentist because varieties available in the market are not created equal. They do not fit properly or allow you to breathe and speak and, in most cases, are not durable. Therefore it would be beneficial for you to get a mouthguard in Raritan customized for your unique needs.
Which Type of Mouthguard Should You Use?
The variety of mouthguard you must consider is determined by the activities you are involved in. If you are interested in the most affordable category, you can select a stock mouthguard, knowing full well the appliance will not provide adequate protection as you want. You can also consider a boil and bite mouthguard available in most drug stores and are customizable to fit your mouth. They are similar to stock mouthguards but require boiling the appliance until it softens, placing it in your mouth, and biting down. However, you must follow the manufacturer’s instructions if you are using the boil and bite variety.
Perhaps the best mouthguard available in the market is one customized by your dentist for your mouth. The dentist makes a mold of your teeth for creating the mouthguard specifically to the structure of your teeth and mouth. Customized mouthguards from dentists provide a better fit making it challenging to accidentally dislodge when sleeping while being more comfortable. If you need a snoring mouth guard, you must prefer one customized by your dentist for the purpose.
What Are Mouthguards Designed for?
Mouthguards were initially designed for sportspersons who were frequently exposed to risks of falling and impacting their mouth in activities like football, boxing, basketball, field hockey, gymnastics, skateboarding, and wrestling. These sporting activities were adequately served by stock mouthguards that were relatively inexpensive and were discarded after a couple of uses.
Dentists discovered people were vulnerable to damaging their teeth by other means than accidents or sporting activities. It is why dentists pioneered a mouthguard for sleeping to serve the needs of many people affected by problems like bruxism or even sleep apnea. The dental appliances proved beneficial, especially for people clenching and grinding their teeth when sleeping and damaging them extensively.
People affected by the problem of snoring also benefited from a sleep apnea mouthguard pioneered by dentists. A widespread perception exists among many people are snoring is a minor problem requiring no medical attention. Only after information was published that snoring could lead to other severe health conditions that people began taking notice of the situation to seek medical professionals’ treatments.
Sleep apnea affects approximately five percent of all Americans. It is an issue that concerns the affected individual and their partners because it causes various problems resulting from lack of sleep and a lower quality of life. Treatments for sleep apnea developed by the medical fraternity are inaccessible and expensive, putting off more people from seeking treatment.
Dentists realizing the dangerous effects of sleep apnea, designed an oral appliance that allowed people affected by this problem to find an affordable instrument that relieved them from this issue. The sleep apnea mouthguard allowed people to wear the appliance when sleeping as the device kept their lower jaw in a forward position to prevent the collapse of their throat muscles. People with the issue were happy as they were relieved from the expensive and inaccessible treatments that prevented them from overcoming sleep apnea.
Mouthguards must be an essential gear of every sportsperson involved in activities as described above. However, there is no reason why school going children and adults involving cycling activities shouldn’t wear mouthguards to safeguard themselves from accidents and protect their teeth. It will help people remember to consider the activities they are interested in and choose a dental appliance accordingly to get the best protection they need for their mouth and teeth.