Headache Relief

How often do you wake up in the morning and say “I feel fabulous”? I mean really feel fabulous. If you are like the majority of adult Americans, the answer is not very often.

If your answer was "Not very often," please take a moment, go to a mirror and look at your lower front teeth. Are they shorter than they used to be? Are your upper front teeth chipped? Are your canine teeth (eye teeth) worn flat on the tip? If so these are all signs of night time tooth grinding. Believe it or not, night time tooth grinding could very well be the reason why you are missing that “fabulous” feeling in the morning. It has also been shown to be one of the leading contributing factors to migraine headache pain.

So what can Dr. George do about it? Oral appliance therapy has been proven effective in stabilizing the bite and preventing the harmful effects of teeth grinding. After just a few weeks of treatment, most patients notice a dramatic difference in their daily comfort. The results are often much more effective than treating the problem with over-the-counter pain medication, and the results are long-lasting.

We have been using oral appliance therapy with spectacular results. An oral appliance is a small, plastic device you wear while sleeping. Wearing this device overnight eliminates clenching forces for all practical purposes. As a result of wearing an oral appliance, the muscles in your jaw and face are much more relaxed in the morning, there is no more abnormal tooth wear, and the frequency and severity of migraine pain is significantly reduced or eliminated.

In many many instances, patients have returned to the office to thank us for making them an oral appliance. Some have expressed that little piece of plastic has practically changed their life. That is a great feeling for a dentist.