Is it possible to suffer dental trauma by biting down too hard on a mouthguard at night?

Doctor's Answer

Yes. When sleeping you could also be suffering from a condition called bruxism, which is the professional term for night grinding or teeth grinding at night. Some patients grind their teeth so heavily at night that over many years of constant grinding, you can see vertical cracks on their teeth and severe wear and tear on their teeth. And a lot of patients who grind their teeth don’t even realise that their teeth are so damaged because there is simply no pain just yet.

But as dentists, we’re trained to look out for all these signs of severe wear and tear, so that we can advise our patients to get the treatment done and prevent a catastrophic fracture of the tooth or a very severe toothache or further deterioration of the tooth that could lead to even expensive treatment down the road.

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