Splints and retainers
Dentessa – Your dental practice
Splits and retainers
Dental splints and their benefits
Pain in the jaw joint, unconscious grinding of the teeth, excessive wear of the dental cusps and ridges and chipping of the parts of the teeth that are in contact. These are all symptoms of parafunctions or excessive actions that are not physiological, i.e. they do not serve the purpose of chewing.
The causes are usually multiple and sometimes it is difficult to discover the main reason for their occurrence. What we can do right away and before the actual functional analysis is to “reset” the muscle-nerve connection, for which 7 days of wearing a BRACKET is enough.
A night guard
A night guard is such a splint, a transparent, soft cover for all teeth in one jaw, which is worn overnight and prevents grinding and parafunctional movements. Already after a few days there is relief, the pain stops, the muscles relax and the teeth are protected from further destruction. Of course, everything that broke before should be compensated, prosthetically or with fillings where possible. After seven days of wearing the splint, it is enough to wear it every second or third night, in agreement with the dentist.
There are also splints that raise the bite, when necessary before prosthetic therapy, and they are made in a precisely defined relationship between the upper and lower jaw of the patient, considering what is to be achieved in a particular case.
Retainers
Retainers are also transparent splints, they are not rubbery but hard, but thin. We use them after orthodontic therapy to maintain the achieved position of the teeth after removing the braces. They are worn from 20 hours a day in the beginning until every third night.
Whitening splints
Whitening splints are an aid during home professional whitening. The patient receives instructions from the doctor and applies the whitening agent himself, which is applied to the splint and usually gradually, with small concentrations, overnight, whitens the teeth to the desired shade.
All these splints are made by our dental laboratory according to the individual impression of each patient.