There are three phases of management of
Dental Compression Syndrome.
- Education
- Equilibration
- Guard Therapy
Guard Therapy
Does the sharpening procedure eliminate the tendency to
clench ones teeth?
Only if that is the sole reason one is clenching. In other
words, many patients are uncomfortable because their teeth do
not fit together properly, and unconsciously squeeze their teeth together
in order to make the problem go away, but it only gets worse. If
their teeth are more comfortable when they close, the tendency
to clench goes away, or greatly diminishes.
However, this does not mean that the psychological component
goes away. The sharpening procedure takes care of the
engineering component, but we also have to be concerned with the
psychological or stress component. For this, the patient needs
to wear some sort of guard to protect his or her teeth and TMJ
during periods of unconscious clenching.
The design I use ninety-five of the time is a small, thin,
hard acrylic guard that fits on the six front teeth. This
guard takes advantage of the engineering fact that one can only
apply twenty-five percent of the force to the front teeth that one
applies to the posterior teeth. This guard has many advantages
and can be worn during the daytime.
Click photos to enlarge
