Sports Mouth Guards

Mouthguards should be used by any child or adult who plays contact sports (football, boxing, soccer, hockey, and basketball). An effective mouthguard should be comfortable, durable, and easy to clean. It should not restrict your breathing or speech. While mouth protectors can be purchased at any sporting goods store, they provide little or no protection. Store-bought guards tend to be bulky, making breathing and talking difficult. We do not recommend their use.

You need a mouth guard designed for your own mouth. We can make a custom-fitted mouthguard designed specifically for you using materials designed to increase comfort and provide protection.

Night Guards and TMJ Splints

Grinding and clenching your teeth at night, known as bruxism, can lead to cracked teeth, pain, and tooth loss. Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ) can develop from bruxism and is extremely uncomfortable. Nightguards and splints help to treat both of these conditions.

While we can’t prevent you from grinding or clenching your teeth at night, we can prevent the damage it can cause with a custom-fitted mouthguard.

TMJ (also referred to as TMD) occurs when the jaw joint hinged to your skull is injured or inflamed due to clenching your teeth, injury to the jaw, or another cause. This condition is quite painful. If you are suffering from any of the following symptoms, you should be evaluated for TMJ:

• Pain in your face, jaw, neck or shoulders, especially when chewing, speaking, or yawning
• Clicking and popping sound in the jaw joint
• “Locking” of the jaw
• Swelling of the jaw
• Fatigue in the jaw
• Difficulty chewing

Like bruxism, night guards are helpful for people with TMJ/TMD. The guard keeps your teeth slightly separated and prevents them from clenching. If your condition is more severe, you may require a splint to hold your jaw in place so the joint can heal.

Nightguards are worn while you are sleeping, while splints are worn all day.