Teeth clenching can cause damage to your child's teeth, migraines, and jaw pain. If your child has this problem, the dentist may prescribe an NTI appliance. This appliance is a tension suppression system that prevents your child from clenching their teeth. This is important because while clenching the pressure causes teeth to wear down, which can lead to broken teeth or tooth loss:

Signs Your Child Is Clenching

If your child complains frequently of headaches, they could be clenching their teeth. You may not realize they are doing this, as it typically happens while they are sleeping. Some other signs you can watch out for include:

• Earaches
• Repetitive jaw clenching
• Painful jaw (TMJ)
• Wakes up often during the night

If your child shows any of these signs, you may want to take them to the doctor first to make sure the cause of these problems is not a medical problem. If they do not find anything wrong, then you should take your child to the dentist to make sure they are not clenching their teeth.

Mouth Guard

If the dentist finds your child is clenching their teeth, he may prescribe a night guard, such as nociceptive trigeminal inhibition (NTI) appliance.  This type of night guard is different, as it not only protects the teeth from clenching, but also stops the behavior.

How It Works

If you bite down on something hard using your front teeth, you will open your mouth immediately. This is known as the NTI reflex, which will keep your child from breaking their teeth. The NTI appliances uses this reflex via an acrylic guard, which your child wears on their lower and upper front teeth while sleeping. When your child starts clenching their teeth while wearing the guard, it will activate the reflex and stop the clenching before it starts.

The dentist will specially fit this guard on your child's teeth, but they will not need to make molds or impressions as with other appliances. They can fit the appliance in their office in a few minutes. Once it is fitted, the guard is snapped into place, and you can only remove it by using your hands. This means it will not easily fall out during the night.

You should make an appointment with your child's dentist to talk about using the NTI appliance. The dentist will go over with you how it works in great detail, as well as the benefits it offers your child. To learn more, contact a company like Village Family Dental with any questions you have.