TMJ Appliance Therapy v Night Guards

If you suffer from head aches, TMJ, grinding or clenching your teeth, using a night guard will not get to the cause of your problem and in most cases will not give you pain relief. Doctors who use night guards are just trying to help in some way with little to no advanced training in resolving the disease process. Using an appliance called a MAGO (maxillary anterior guided orthotic), by trained doctors, will aid in a diagnosis as to what is causing the pain. Then through using that appliance will get to the issue and eliminate the cause usually through a process of reshaping the teeth, adding white tooth colored filling material to the backs of the upper front teeth and the tops of the lower front teeth. This process is called a coronoplasty and is painless. I see far to often people coming to my office with a night guard to treat TMJ (TMD) head aches, and wear on teeth which is like putting a band aid on a staph infection and hoping the infection will go away because you can’t see it.