Price of customised night guard for teeth grinding

lou49

Had one of these a few years ago but I lost it (used to wake up and find it on the pillow next to me. Very romantic)

Having just had a root canal plus another filling I am thinking of getting another one. My dentist (private) is good, have been going to him for nearly 8 years, but this morning he told me the approximate cost for a new guard would be about £600! Whew! He reckons I need another one and so do I - but is this price reasonable?
It would be for a hard night guard.

Would really appreciate any comments from the wonderful dentists on this forum.
Oh - dentist (and me) are in north London so London prices!

TIA

Toothsmith

Hard bite guards do take a fair bit of adjustment, and can be very time consuming to adust correctly.

It's quite a lot dearer than I charge, but I tend to make pretty simple ones that dentists with a 'real' interest in occlusion tend to turn their noses up at!! Mine seem to work though!!

You could ask if there was a cheaper alternative I suppose.

oystercatcher

I had a silicone (I think) flexible mouthguard made privately by my NHS dentist for £65 a couple of months ago. For similar reasons to you.

Oystercatcher

Beebop

I suffer from teeth grinding and after a lot of work on my teeth, I had a flexible mouthgaurd made by my dentist (again, privately) last month and it cost me £25....
(Now I'm glad I don't have to deal with London prices :eek: )

PinkGrapefruit_2

I have a relative who grinds his teeth at night, he uses a mouthguard that boxers use, you can get them from sports shops for about £1, he says it has solved the problem (the grinding was causing jaw problems). Might be worth a go before shelling out £600 - eek!

Kavanne

I got one free off the NHS (through GP referral to hospital)

3 month wait for it though.

SparkyG

My dentist, (N. London-Herts border) charges £78 pounds for a 'sports' nightguard for tooth grinding. Made by Playsafe mouthguards, tel: 081 361 4075 (it's on the box!!), but they don't deal direct with the public.

coldstreamalways

A proper night guard for dealing with occlusion type problems almost certainly won't be flexible. I have made one hard acrylic guard since I left Uni (granted I'm a baby and have only been practicing for 4 years) and it cost about £80 to have made and in total, it took about four hours of my time. I left the practice about six months afterwards and they are probably still adjusting it. Because I was a newby, I did it on the NHS (before new contract) NEVER AGAIN!

It was such a loss maker, when you factor in the fact that a dental surgery costs at least £90 an hour to keep open (before the dentist gets paid) you can see why they are so expensive. Now I'm a bit more experienced, I would expect to spend about 2-2.5hours on one of these Even so, that's a considerable amount of time.

They are a precision bit of kit and hard to get right. £600 for London is probably not excessive.

BlueNose

Hi just thought I would get my bit in... excuse the pun.. but I got a guard to wear at night... I know not the most romantic a few years ago and it cost me about £80. I did not mind paying that but wish I had known about the item from sports shop. I think £600 is a bit.... steep... I know I am Scottish! :rolleyes2

donteatthat

I make them out of metal these days- they don't break after 18 months or so, they are much more comfortable to wear as they are thinner than the soft or acrylic ones, and they don't act as an exerciser to make the muscles stronger like the soft squishy kind do. But the costs on these are high, the lab bill is around £400 but it will last a looooooonnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggg time.

coldstreamalways

Do you get them in CoCr? I must be honest I've never seen a metal one but then my patient base don't really go in for anything like that!