What are five good reasons to wear a night guard?

There are a lot of good reasons to wear a night guard, lets count the ways....

1. It protects teeth from excessive wear. Although not all wear happens at night, a cursory inspection of wear facets on most peoples teeth indicate the probability that much of it comes from night time para function activity. Having the protection of plastic covering the occlusal surfaces of the teeth is kinder to them and when plastic meets tooth, it is the plastic that tends to wear.

2. Although teeth appear stationary, they are not and nightly wearing of a maxillary night guard keeps the teeth in place and will not allow them to "drift". It functions as a maxillary orthodontic retainer.  Also, as teeth wear, they tend to slowly erupt in order to remain in occlusal contact. Maxillary retainers keep teeth from extruding since they not only prevent wear, they hold the teeth in place.

3. A properly designed night guard will have a well adjusted and balanced bite in centric and will have anterior guidance in all excursions. This occlusal scheme tends to "shutdown" the muscles of mastication and allows them a night time rest. Many patients report their facial muscles are more relaxed when they wake up.

4. Most likely, night guards will help lesson the likelihood that patients will crack their teeth since the occlusal scheme provided will not allow excursive forces on back teeth and the full coverage over the teeth shares the load of any forces that are transmitted.

5. It acts a splint and keeps teeth that have experienced bone loss from developing excessive mobility. This can happen with older patients whom have lost much of the bone supporting certain teeth. Their night guard acts like a night time splint and help keep these teeth in their mouths.