I used to grind my teeth a lot at night, then stopped for several years. I started again recently according to my girlfriend, so I’d like to try an OTC Night Guard. The prescription (custom) ones are expensive, plus I don’t trust the dentist my insurance company sends me to.
So, I wanted to buy a Night Guard from Amazon.com and try it out - if it doesn’t work well, I’ll get a custom one from the dentist. But I’d prefer it work out well, so I’m asking advice.
What brand of anti-bruxing device is good? I see SleepRight, Hygiene Preferred, Archtek, The Doctor’s, DenTek, Dental Concepts…
Also, they range in price from $13 to $70 - what’s a good amount to spend whilst experimenting with these devices?
If you’re a really bad grinder, an over-the-counter mouth guard isn’t going to do anything for you. However, in your post, you don’t mention incredibly horrible debilitating pain, so I’m guessing you’re not a bad grinder. If the only thing you notice is that your girlfriend says you’re grinding, maybe something from Amazon will help.
I’m a bad grinder, and I can tell you - it’s not something you don’t notice. It’s some of the worse pain I’ve ever felt, and you get a bad headache as well.
I have a mouth guard from my dentist that I wear when things get bad, and it’s not something that you just buy once and forget about. It has to be fitted to your mouth, and it also has to be adjusted every 6 months to a year, depending on your own grinding patterns. There is no “one size fits all” - as your mouth changes, the pressure points where you grind change, and the dentist has to adjust the guard to prevent those points.
It cost me about $350 when I bought it in about 1993. My dentist now tells me that they’re more like $600-$800. Probably not worth it unless things really hurt.
My dentist-created mouthguard cost me $320 and insurance wouldn’t pick up any of it. This was less than six months ago.
I can’t speak for the OTC guards. I tried a sports type mouthguard but it was very uncomfortable and I doubt it would have stayed on as well. The dentist one is molded to my teeth and is heated (in hot tap water) for 20 seconds before I put it in giving it a solid grip. It’s not “comfortable” in that I notice it and it’s annoying but it doesn’t keep me from sleeping either.
I have to say that the most important part of the OP is not trusting his dentist. SeanArenas, unless there’s no way to change, you need to ask around and find someone good. Life is so much less stressful if you have a good dentist that you can trust.
I don’t get pain from my grinding, it just breaks my teeth apart. (Teeth with big fillings are especially suseptible. The size of my fillings may be an artifact of older dentistry.) I’ve got a dentist guard that cost $250, a couple of years ago. It works. I’ve never tried generics, but it’s much smaller and more effective than the sports guards I’ve tried.
Anyway, my goal in wearing the guard is to save me from the cost of more crowns. So a little more cost for something I trust is a good investment, for me.
I’ve used a custom-molded night guard for about 13 years now, definitely helps. I had a very stressful job for several years and was clenching my jaw something horrible at night (I’d literally wake up feeling like someone was prying at my teeth with a metal bar).
My original guard lasted over ten years before it wore out. Current dentist molded a new one. My insurance didn’t pay for the new one and it was pricey (nearly $500 all told) but I think it’s worth it. It’s not at all uncomfortable to wear, certainly much more comfortable than a heat-molded mouthguard (the sort of thing you’d use for boxing).
I just got a DenTek one last week, and so far I really like it. I was getting headaches from grinding my teeth, but I don’t really have the money to get a mouthguard from the dentist. The DenTek cost about $25, and I boiled it and shaped it to my teeth. I’ve only used it about 4 nights so far, but no more headaches! I do find, though, that one side of my neck is a little bit sore in the morning – I assume that something about the mouthguard is causing me to sleep a little funny, but I also assume that I’ll adjust to it. Anyway, the very mild sore neck is much more manageable than the bad headaches I get from grinding my teeth, so I’ll take it.
I’d tried a SleepRight mouth guard a year or so ago, and I didn’t like it as much – I felt like I was still clenching, and it wasn’t as comfortable in my mouth.
I tried an OTC dental guard, and found it to be too big and uncomfortable. Even when I tried to wear it all night, I always ended up spitting it out by morning.
I started with a soft OTC dental guard, and chewed through it (chomp chomp). There wasn’t any decrease in noise, either, from my husband’s point of view; it just changed from “crushing marbles in a vise” to squeaking. I tried one with harder plastic and found it unbearably uncomfortable.
Six months ago, I paid full price out-of-pocket for an “NTI device” (its full name is “Nociceptive Trigeminal Inhibition Tension Suppression System” and it fits over just your two front teeth) at about $200. It works. I just wish my dental insurance covered it. If I’d got one years ago, I might not be needing crown work now, which my insurance does cover. The advantage of the NTI style over the all-teeth style is that it prevents your back teeth from touching anything, so your jaw muscles aren’t able to bring as much pressure to bear down with. You can’t even clench.
Oh, special warning. Dogs think that a used bite guard smells like a chew toy. If you have a dog, do not leave your guard on the night stand, not even in it’s nifty plastic case.
I got one of those TSS thingies about 4 years ago, cost me $400, and loosened up on me within a couple of months. Went in for a “free” adjustment and it loosened up on me again within just a couple more months. My bottom teeth left marks in it. When I woke up with it loose in my mouth the second time - it’s small enough to choke on! - I was done with it.
Bought a SleepRight and have used it for a couple of years now without needing to replace it. I got it at Walgreens for about $40. I definitely clench the crap out of it, the bite areas on both sides have deep grooves in them, but I’ll pony up the cash again without blinking. At least this thing can’t be swallowed during sleep!
That’s exactly what happened to my custom dentist-made guard a few months ago. The Derbycorgi ate it.
So I bought The Doctor’s brand at Walgreens to tide me over until I could get another from the dentist. But, while it isn’t as comfortable as the custom one, this one seems to work fine. So I’ll save my money for the time being.
Yeah, YMMV for sure. I’ve had mine now almost nine months and it still fits perfectly. I’ve definitely carved out a notch on the bottom where my lower front teeth scrape it laterally, but the design of the thingy has a very thick layer of material there, so it’s in no danger. If yours was fitted with a thin layer wherever you happen to gnaw most, I can see how it wouldn’t work for long. I don’t know if that variable is due to the basic NTI design or to a given dentist’s fitting technique.
Our **cats **think they’re really fun prey (they also love to chew up used earplugs… mmmn, stale earwax!). Nightguard goes in protective case, case goes in drawer. When soaking nightguard in cup of denture cleaner, cup goes in cabinet with door firmly shut.