Price of customised night guard for teeth grinding

Toothsmith

Wow !
I'd never heard of metal ones either! You must either have a really good lab, or a heavy duty angle grinder for all the adjustment!!

lostinrates

donteatthat wrote: »

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.

The breaking is an issue. DH wearsa flexible one, and has tried various ones ranging from the cheaper dentist ones to the very expensive ones. He has found the longest lasting are ones you drop in hot water and put in the mouth, and are much cheaper, BUT the ones he bought in UK wore through immeadiately: he gets his in Italy.....three years wear on it now!

If a metal one would be more comfortable it might be an idea....

donteatthat

The problem with soft ones is that they exercise the muscles so strengthen them and the grinding power is MUCH worse the instant they aren't worn. Terrible.
Yes - they are made out of CoCr, but you need a very good technician - PM me if you want to know who makes them. And you just use...er...burs to adjust them lol - but with good imps ( impregum / metal trays) and a good registration there shouldn't be too much to adjust if they've had a preliminary deprogrammer. Prestige now supply the little lucia jig templates that previously seemed to only come from the USA also.
I'll shut up now at risk of boring the non-dentists lol

Teerah

Never heard of a metal one either! How thick are they occlusally? The hard acyrlic ones work for me

SparkyG

donteatthat wrote: »

The problem with soft ones is that they exercise the muscles so strengthen them and the grinding power is MUCH worse the instant they aren't worn. Terrible.

I'll shut up now at risk of boring the non-dentists lol

Omg! Are you telling me I'm just strengthening my muscles and making the grinding worse by occasionally using my Playsafe sports type mouthguard? My dentist told me to use it only when particularly stressed or anxious, and it wasn't necessary to wear it every night.

I know you don't want to give conflicting advice against another professional, especially when you haven't seen the mouth in question;) , but please don't 'shut up now' because you are certainly not 'boring the non-dentists'.

Toothsmith

Hmm - this could easily be a can of worms.

Donteatthat is a very skilled young lady working in a referral implant practice.

I am an 'ordinary' GP dentist.

We see things at a different perspective.

Us at the coal face see all sorts of minor occlusal problems every day - and I must admit that I treat the vast majority of mine with soft bite guards (I wouldn't ever recommend a boil in the bag type gumshield for the job though!) It might be placebo, even but what the heck - it seems to help a lot of people!

Up at D.E.T's end, she sees all sorts of very complex complete rebuild cases where VERY bad grinding habits - and yes - habits that may have been made worse by the sort of thing I provide - have really destroyed mouths.

These cases to me are a-few-times-in-a-career cases, but to her are everyday occurances. They really do need very precise devices to help sort out and maintain their condition.

If I ever find that my squishy ones aren't helping, then I move up to the hard ones. If they don't seem to work, then I discuss referral to someone like D.e.t. with my patients. I would hope I can spot them in good time, and refer before major damage is done.

Sometimes though, just explaining the costs involved in seeing a specialist like her, work even better than the bite guards at curing the problems!!!

Bottom line Sparky - if wearing your mouthguard seems to be helping, then that's fine - it probably is. If it isn't then it's time to move a notch up the ladder.

Francesanne

My N.H.S. dentist charged me £200.00 and I've only worn the horrible thing twice. It made me gag and that put me off. Mine is quite filmsy so maybe your's is better quality. I live in North London but my dentist from childhood is based in West London.

Toothsmith

Francesanne wrote: »

My N.H.S. dentist charged me £200.00 and I've only worn the horrible thing twice. It made me gag and that put me off. Mine is quite filmsy so maybe your's is better quality. I live in North London but my dentist from childhood is based in West London.

Your dentist charged you the correct NHS price!

Anything that needs a lab to make it is a Band 3 treatment, and the band 3 charge is £198. That's the rule.

You'd have been better off spending £80 with a private dentist.

donteatthat

Blimey thats a big compliment TS lol I'm not that flash he he.
I have a lot of general practice patients as well as the complicated ones, but I do see a lot of people with pretty mashed up teeth and bites from piecemeal patch up treatment and isolated items of treatment done without a full mouth consideration that over time have left them with a pretty unstable dental situation.
I also get quite a few "youngsters" who have ground away merrily on their unrestored teeth til they are very worn at a young age and need rebuilding.
Sometimes I guess for whatever reason the soft splints are some are going to be able to have, although with us we would cost in often an acrylic splint intially and then a metal one at the end of treatment.
Like TS says - if the soft splints are not working (and there are papers that show a good placebo effect with these things) then an acrylic one is going to be better.
Each case has to be assessed on it's own individual situation, and I'm wary of getting wrist slap on the medical advice thing here - the best person to advise is going to be your own dentist based on their treatment philosophy and I guess whether they have the time / facilities / experience to provide alternatives to the soft splint.

Olympika

I am having awful dental problems, mainly related to bulimia... Seems I also suffer from bruxism and I have been wearing a 'Bitesoft' acrylic guard since last Friday. I was assured it would last at least 12 months but there are already significant signs of the grinding on the inside, with grroves about 1-2mm deep... Being realistic, this guard isn't going to last anywhere near 12 months, is it? I am on Denplan so only paid for lab costs and it worked out as £130. Is there anything else I can do? I have got 5 chipped teeth and a crack in one or two as a result of the grinding... TIA