WILL ALIGNERS HELP WITH MY GRINDING?
WILL ALIGNERS HELP WITH MY GRINDING?
EXPECTATIONS From DIGITAL ORTHODONTICS - Solo Edition by Dr. Bak Nguyen
Absolutely. Aligners are a layer of plastic that covers each of your arches. If you are grinding, that is the first protection that you will need, to avoid your natural teeth from wearing each other. Instead, you will be grinding on the plastic. Sure, you will wear them down and will have to replace these aligners, which is much cheaper than the alternative of repairing fractured teeth.
If it is said that most people were grinding teeth to some degree before COVID, everybody is since. Since the COVID crisis, dentists all around the world have never treated so many fractured teeth and jaw pain-related cases. The straight answer is that we are internalizing the stress. In your mouth, that meant grinding.
While in treatment, grinding your teeth will actually help to maximize the expression of your teeth within the aligners, forcing your teeth to mold to its maximum potential, the shape of the programmed aligners. After the treatment is completed, wearing your retention aligners at night will serve 2 purposes:
1- maintaining the alignment of your teeth.
2- protect all of your teeth from the effect of grinding at night.
We know that just because we are all humans and we are alive, our body grows and our teeth will be shifting naturally. Well, wearing night retention will help to maintain the teeth aligned. Now, if you factor in the grinding, what do you think will happen? Grinding is expedite the relapse of your teeth if you do now wear your retentions. That is why it is of primal importance for you to understand the natural forces and trends of your body and to know how to maintain that beautiful smile you've just achieved.
Now, on the other hand, some people will report that wearing aligners will cause them to grind. That is possible too. Everyone will react to the introduction of anything new in their mouth, especially an appliance that will move their teeth. That is extra stress.
Some if not most people will react to that stress. As a result, they might be grinding their teeth for a little while. This is a natural reaction and it is actually helping the advancement of the orthodontic treatment.
Normally, they are no undesirable effects since your teeth are protected by the aligners. That said, the grinding will have to be monitored closely. Usually, that will come back to normal within a few weeks of treatment. If not, it will have to be evaluated by your attending.