clenching- mouth guard

[curious81]

I have a mouthguard as I clench my teeth at night. i have noticed I am doing it during the day too!! Would it cause problems if I wore the guard during the day for a while, removing it when I eat.

[woofgang]

I used to wear mine for most of the day when i needed one. It was clear soft stuff and nobody noticed particularly but yes, take it out to eat and drink. My worst time for clenching was driving. I did use the bite raiser (mouth guard) but my dentist also told me to try driving with my mouth hanging open a bit..it looks weird but again it did help.

Just a thought would be to check with your dentist if the guard you have is suitable for day and night use, mine was.

[Panic Button]

Clenching will cause premature wear to your jaw joint (TMJ - temporomandibular joint)
I have done that very thing, and have a massively clicky jaw as a result.

There is not a lot you can do about the night time clenching, but wearing the mouth guard by day might give you 'permission' to clench more. You need to put your thoughts into relaxing your jaw instead.

[IggyB]

you wear the guard at night because you cannot consciously control your jaw clenching - during the day you need to learn to have more self control and learn to stop clenching. as mentioned by panic button it is not just your teeth that you are trying to protect but also the jaw.

[woofgang]

I found having the bite raiser in reminded me not to clench.

[tamirra]

I have this exact problem and have also been made a soft shield and a hard one, cant get on with either, my clenching and grinding have got very bad recently i am now waiting to see a maxillo facial surgeon as i may need surgery to rebuild my left side jaw socket where it have worn down, i have constant pain in that side of my jaw now due to this on going problem.