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Grinding your Teeth

  • 01-02-2006 9:49pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 35,954 ✭✭✭✭Larianne


    I grind my teeth at night. Apparently its pretty bad, according to a former room mate and also my mother used to mention it to me.

    Woke up this morning with a sore jaw and ear. Do they sell those gum shield/protector things here in Ireland? I know you can get them in the States but I have never seen them here.

    Also does anyone know why people grind their teeth at night and can it be stopped?


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32 DaisyD


    When I was 18 my dentist realised I had a crooked bite. Basically I had very sore jaw and couldn't open my mouth very wide. I got a shield made specially for me by an orthodontist. Not sure if you can get them 'over the counter'. I grind my teeth a lot during the day if I'm stressed, hope I'm not damaging them! Hope you get sorted ...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,731 ✭✭✭DadaKopf


    It's called Bruxism. Your dentist will probably be able to make up a 'bite guard' for you that snugly fits into your upper teeth. They're not very expensive.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,217 ✭✭✭FX Meister


    My dentist made one for me, cost about €140 if I remember correctly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 39 PokerTony


    Larianne wrote:
    I grind my teeth at night. Apparently its pretty bad, according to a former room mate and also my mother used to mention it to me.

    Woke up this morning with a sore jaw and ear. Do they sell those gum shield/protector things here in Ireland? I know you can get them in the States but I have never seen them here.

    Also does anyone know why people grind their teeth at night and can it be stopped?

    Don't bother going to the dentist for one, they'll charge you a couple of hundred for one. You can get the ones they sell in the US for a few $ on eBay and they work just as well
    http://cgi.ebay.com/BEST-FIT-DENTAL-PREFERRED-NIGHT-GRIND-BRUX-MOUTH-GUARD_W0QQitemZ5663760149QQcategoryZ11843QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭ Connor Moldy Aerosol


    PokerTony wrote:
    Don't bother going to the dentist for one, they'll charge you a couple of hundred for one. You can get the ones they sell in the US for a few $ on eBay and they work just as well
    http://cgi.ebay.com/BEST-FIT-DENTAL-PREFERRED-NIGHT-GRIND-BRUX-MOUTH-GUARD_W0QQitemZ5663760149QQcategoryZ11843QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

    Absolute rubbish!

    The ones you make yourself are poorly fitting, too thick and are soft. A good splint (the proper name for a night time appliance for grinding....a sports guard is something different) The dentist made splint fits well and good ones are hard. The soft ones are rubbish only good as sports guards and can in fact cause you the grind more cause there are spongy. The most important about a splint is the way it makes your teeth meet when its in. It takes about 2 hours of dental chair time to properly adjust and check the bit to insure it is properly set up to prevent grinding. Many of you are talking about soft splints which are there purely to protect your teeth and do not in any way prevent grinding only make your grinding less destructive. Do not wear the ones you make yourself, not even for sports gum shields as they offer little or no protection for you teeth.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,008 ✭✭✭✭tk123


    Yeah fitzgeme is right!! Mine is like a hard resin one. It was a few €100 euros when I got it but I have it abt 5 years now and it's still fine. The dentist put a lot of time into getting it to fit comfortably. When I got it he put these stips on it and got me to grind my teeth - the stips left a mark on the splint so he'd know where to make impressions etc so it would fit properly and trimmed the edges etc. It's well worth the money when you see what damage gets done to the splint instead of your teeth. OP go to the dentist and get checked out!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32 DaisyD


    A good splint (the proper name for a night time appliance for grinding....


    Spoke to a dental technician yesterday in Drogheda, he quoted e50 for a custom made splint. Not sure if this would stop the grinding but might help??? Dental technician do a lot of work for dentists so you are cutting out the dentist's charges by going straight to the technician....


  • Registered Users Posts: 35,954 ✭✭✭✭Larianne


    DaisyD wrote:
    Spoke to a dental technician yesterday in Drogheda, he quoted e50 for a custom made splint. Not sure if this would stop the grinding but might help??? Dental technician do a lot of work for dentists so you are cutting out the dentist's charges by going straight to the technician....


    How would you get in contact with a Dental Technician? I want it done properly, no point of wasting my money. Would they be as good as a dentist?

    Thanks for all the advice. Going to the States next week so I was going to get one of those guards but won't bother now if they're a waste of money.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    I suffer from this too. My dentist made me up a night-splint for €90, but when I tried it, the hard plastic nearly knocked lumps out of my from teeth (it was a splint that went on my lower teeth).

    Most dental technicians will knock you up one for a lot cheaper.

    And to that poster who paid €150 for his, sorry mate, you were ripped. I've a friend with his own Dental Tech. business, and those things cost about €25 to knock up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭DublinWriter


    Larianne wrote:
    DaisyD wrote:
    How would you get in contact with a Dental Technician? I want it done properly, no point of wasting my money. Would they be as good as a dentist?
    Look up the Golden Pages.

    Dentists *never ever* make these things themselves, they just send your impressions to a Dental Technician and charge you for the privelidge.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭ Connor Moldy Aerosol


    1) most dental technicians dont make proper hard splints...50 euro would only get you a soft one. I used to pay 150 euro in lab fees alone for a hard heat cured acrylic flat plane splint. Yeah I paid less for bouncy soft ones but they are no good IMO.

    2) The splint has to be made from an impression of your teeth...only a dentist can take this. That is why technicians cannot work on there own. Those denturists you see are illegally operating. Its not the making of the splint that matters its how it constructed and how the bite is adjusted on it. I would suggest that any attempt to cut costs and do it yourself or getting somebody who is not quallified to do it is worse than no splint at all.

    Larianne could you edit your post....that is not all a quote from me thanks


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭ Connor Moldy Aerosol


    Dentists *never ever* make these things themselves, they just send your impressions to a Dental Technician and charge you for the privelidge.

    Do mechanics make sparkplugs? Do doctors make pacemakers? I have made plenty of dental prosthesis but unfortunatly my time is better spent preforming treatments. Its a service not a device you are paying for...it takes training to diagnose, prescribe, take proper impressions, adjust and monitor temporomandibular joint disorder.

    No more I got a splint for 5 euro and its great....you did not get a proper one for that money, you got a sports guard type thing that does absoulty nothing and it thus the biggest waste of money of all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 35,954 ✭✭✭✭Larianne


    Thanks for all the info, will go to my dentist, pronto!

    Now Fitz do the same for me as I did for you! ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,610 ✭✭✭dbnavan


    I suffer from lock jaw. I got the night splint, couldnt get used to it so took it out. what I found worked really well for some reason was raised pillows, now I sleep with 3. and jaw feels lots better, I notice it if I sleep in someone elses house and only use 1 pillow.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭ Connor Moldy Aerosol


    dbnavan wrote:
    I suffs

    Yeah TMD or Tempromandibular joint disorder is a multifactorial condition...meaning that we dont really know what causes it. There are as many treatments as there are causes or alleged causes. Splints of all shapes, sizes and costs. Plus it is a condition that crosses three specialities of dentistry...oral surgery....prosthodontics...and facial pain specialists. Splints work for more acute pain...the long standing chronic pains are harder to treat. Splints are usefull also to protect dental work like crowns and veneers in those who grind. Drugs sometines work and so does joint surgery in some people. It really depend on the individual case.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32 DaisyD


    You'll get dental technician details in yellow pages. As far as I know the guy I spoke to in Drogheda takes impressions and makes the guards to fit. My mother in law was with him and he definitely took impressions of her teeth before doing the work she needed. Talk to your dentist, see how much it's going to cost, and find out who will be making the splint, then compare it to a technician's cost. If the dentist is going to be sending the work out to the technician anyway why not cut out the middle man. Let us know how you get on with the dentist...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,538 ✭✭✭ Connor Moldy Aerosol


    DaisyD wrote:
    You'll get dental technician details in yellow pages. As far as I know the guy I spoke to in Drogheda takes impressions and makes the guards to fit. My mother in law was with him and he definitely took impressions of her teeth before doing the work she needed. Talk to your dentist, see how much it's going to cost, and find out who will be making the splint, then compare it to a technician's cost. If the dentist is going to be sending the work out to the technician anyway why not cut out the middle man. Let us know how you get on with the dentist...

    Oh god its like talking to a brick wall. Only dentists are legailly allowed to take impressions. If a technician take an impression it is assault. This is the law. Technicians have not training in diagnosis, medical emergency treatment, cross infection control (are they sterilising their instruments? who knows). How will the technician know what kind of splint to make, how to adjust it once it is fitted and how to monitor you progress? I suggest daisyD that you post in the bargain alert forum cause your posts here are not useful and are illegal.

    The law may change one day...however I think when these denturists and tecniciains will find when they have to pay all the public liability insurance, malpractice insurance, sterilisation costs, cost for proper dental chairs and undergo to longer proper training the EU require for a clinical technician their costs will become much greater. This should be a sticky but
    "YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 888 ✭✭✭themole


    i got a bite guard from my dentist.

    its made from some kind of see through thermo plastic

    it cost a fair wack, can't remember, but deffo over €100.

    he had to take the impression, then it was prob made by a tachnician i dunno,

    then i had to come back to get it fitted where he spent around 20-30 mins getting it to fit right, it was moulded for my top teeth and he manually made it fit into my bottom teeth so that when i close my mouth with it in my jaws cannot more from side to side.

    my bro got one from another dentist who charged him €60 but it was much bigger than mine and wasn't fitted as well, henever wears it as a result.

    i wear mine all the time and am used to it now.

    so, as said before you get what you pay for. his cost less but was money wasted as he can't wear it


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 492 ✭✭rcunning03


    Oh god its like talking to a brick wall. Only dentists are legailly allowed to take impressions. If a technician take an impression it is assault. This is the law. Technicians have not training in diagnosis, medical emergency treatment, cross infection control (are they sterilising their instruments? who knows). How will the technician know what kind of splint to make, how to adjust it once it is fitted and how to monitor you progress? I suggest daisyD that you post in the bargain alert forum cause your posts here are not useful and are illegal.

    The law may change one day...however I think when these denturists and tecniciains will find when they have to pay all the public liability insurance, malpractice insurance, sterilisation costs, cost for proper dental chairs and undergo to longer proper training the EU require for a clinical technician their costs will become much greater. This should be a sticky but
    "YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR


    I do believe every service provider from doctors to solicitors, dentists to mechanics are over charging us, mainly because of insurance costs etc and it is annoying that other european countries get it for free, considering all the indirect taxes we pay it should be free, but there is no way in hell I would go to some guy in Drogheda about my teeth just to save €50 or €60. Don't spend a few thousand euro on your child's communion and pay for proper care of your teeth


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