Occlusal Splints – Custom Made For Many Reasons. Avoid Online Disasters.

A splint is firm and strong to provide a stable even bite for a person can grind or clench  on. It need to NOT be flexible if it to stabilise the jaw joint and muscles. The splint will need to monitored and future adjustments made to continually achieve this stablity. It’s not set and forget. Otherwise, jaw joint and muscles problems can occur. If this is not attended to, the neck muscles supporting the jaw can become affected.

A mouthguard is truama protection only and NOT a treament appliance. It is too flexible and will eventually cause abnormal muscle issues and jaw joint problems. The jaw joint / muscle complex will grind the mouthguard to make it even, causing an uncoordinated mess, and neck and head aches, and muscle spasm (trismus).

Both appliance are made from models  for a custom fit. However, it worse for the online appliance that are not custom made to fit the teeth precisely. A patient thought an online version would be ok to get, because of his “research”. Then he got severe headaches, muscle spasm and a sore neck. He did further “research” and found that thay caused severe headaches, muscle spasm and a sore neck!

There comes a point where an appliance is needed to protect yourself from yourself. What’s great about these appliances is they are non-invasive.

We need to take models and a bite record and the occlusal splint is fitted. There is, however, an important adjustment period to fine tune the function of the appliance.

Occlusal Splints

Occlusal splints are the main appliance to protect against serious Covid Grind. This is an appliance that is made to fit over the biting surfaces on either the upper or lower teeth. It is usually a firm acrylic removable bite plate, that acts as a protective guard over the teeth (usually in the upper jaw).

The splint provides an even bite and ensures the load is spread over all the teeth. This relieves the jaw’s muscles and reduces pain. The jaw joints, in turn, benefits from the reduced workload.

The splint is also used to protect against excessive Covid grinding, or bruxing of teeth. This often leads to cracked teeth and fillings, even crowns. Sometimes teeth split and have to be removed. The splint greatly reduces this continual trauma to the teeth, muscles and jaw joints. Even with crowns placed on teeth, cracks can still occur beneath!

Always bring the occlusal splint when visiting the dentist so that it can be check that the bite on it is still even and it function well. Also, if there is any treatment is to be done, such as a filling, the splint has to be checked that it still fits and the bite on it remains even.

Always wear the splint otherwise the teeth may move slightly and after a couple of days it will start to not fit properly. If for some reason, such as sickness, you can’t wear the splint, then at least for a minute EACH day, put the splint in and bite firmly and then remove it. This will ensure the teeth don’t move.

A side benefit of the occlusal splint is that it stops the teeth from moving and ensures a stable arch on which it is sitting on. This it does by in directly “splinting” the teeth together and acting like an orthodontic retainer.

It’s important to clean the appliance and keep it moist when not in use otherwise it will change shape.

Mouthguard 

Making a mouthguard on one jaw, using a model(s) prepared from an impression(s) of the teeth taken by or under the supervision of the clinician (that’s the dentist) and subsequently inserted by the dentist.

A mouth guard custom made to a person’s mouth is far, far better than a self-moulded plastic shape, made in hot water.

Properly made mouth guards have the following features:

• Made on a person’s own models so they are able to be placed back to reduce becoming misshapen
• Has the person’s name, and other details, embedded in the material
• Is multi-layered and therefore stronger and takes longer to distort
• Front mouthguard has a V avoiding the frenum or muscle attachment, otherwise it will pop out with lip movement or ulcerate it
• Has the imprint of the opposing teeth to provide stability
• Protects the upper teeth from a direct blow
• Protects the lower teeth from an upper directed blow to the lower jaw from crashing into the upper teeth
• Reduces the lower jaw from fracture as the mouth guard absorbs some of the energy of the blow due to its snug fit
• As the mouth guards fits well on the teeth it tends to not fall out when running
• Yes, for the fashion conscious, it comes in a range of colours. For those that play on grass, the green colour may not be the best colour if you do not want to lose it
• It makes you look like you mean business!

The cost of a properly made mouthguard is tiny compared to the damage and injury that it prevents. Remember that some injuries may never be corrected to the way your body was. This includes loss of teeth and bone and fractures that misalign the bite and joints.

Teeth and bone fragments can piece the lips and cheek and may cause scarring and the list goes on.

The sport that really benefits from a mouthguard is hockey; that hockey stick certainly messes with the teeth big time! The number of times we have had to resurrect a player’s mouth is incredible.