A Custom Mouthguard Could Protect Your Smile
February 10, 2022
When you play sports, or if you grind your teeth, your smile could be at risk. To prevent damage and other complications, we recommend obtaining a custom-made mouthguard. In today’s blog, your Kansas City, MO, dentist talks about how we protect smiles with an oral appliance!
Crafting Your Mouthguard
You can buy a boil-and-bite option at any sporting goods or big box store. While better than nothing, they don’t provide the same level of protection as a custom-made option. To create a custom option for kids and adults, we take detailed images and measurements of the smile with digital scanning systems, creating a 3D computer impression. This allows us to design and craft the final product with better precision and accuracy. This provides a more precise fit, and better protection from injury.
Preventing Damage
We recommend these for people who play sports or engage in activities that could damage teeth, such as martial arts. Often, a fracture could go unnoticed as it is nearly invisible to the naked eye, and even a minor chip could be ignored as an issue that doesn’t require attention. But even small injuries could expose the sensitive inner tissues to harmful oral bacteria, which then leads to painful causes of tooth decay and infection. Your smile begins to hurt, and you could even risk the stability of the tooth in question! You could also be more likely to have a tooth knocked loose or out completely. Be sure you wear your mouthguard to safeguard your smile.
Treating Bruxism
We could also use them to treat bruxism! This disorder means you grind or clench your teeth at night, with the pressure cracking or chipped teeth eventually or wearing them down. This leads to poor smile esthetics, and an increased risk of cavities and infection too. The mouthguard provides a layer of protection to permanent further damage, acting as a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth. They can also reposition the jaw to ease the factors behind your bruxism, and also offer treatment for TMJ disorder too.
If you have any questions about how our custom oral appliances help protect smiles of all ages, and even offer respite from the impacts of teeth grinding , then contact our team today. You can schedule a visit for an exam and cleaning, and leave with a custom appliance. We look forward to seeing you and your family!
Talk to Your Kansas City, MO Dentist About Safeguarding Smiles
Our team is ready to help transform your smile with a custom oral appliance. If you have questions about our treatment options and our preventive solutions to damaged teeth and tooth decay, then contact your Kansas City, MO, dentist, Dr. Lucaci, by calling 816-427-4018.