What Is a Dental Splint?

Although we get two sets of teeth, it is especially important that we take good care of our permanent teeth as those teeth may have to last over 80 years. New dental technology has resulted in better methods to take care of our teeth and ensure that they last us a lifetime.   

In the world of dentistry, the term dental splint has two different meanings. A dental splint can be a device that is used to join teeth together for stabilization. This is needed when teeth are loose, as loose teeth can make eating difficult and uncomfortable. The dental splint prevents them from moving by anchoring them to other healthy teeth, thus lessening the chances they may fall out and easing the difficulty of chewing. This can be a temporary or more permanent fix but it is important to find the root cause of the looseness.     

A different type of dental splint is used to treat bruxism, otherwise known as teeth grinding. Instead of stabilizing loose teeth, this type of dental splint protects the teeth from wear and tear. A mouthguard-like device made of heat-cured acrylic is fitted over the top or bottom teeth. These custom splints are made by dentists after taking a cast of the patient’s mouth. When tooth grinding occurs, the teeth are protected by the dental splint and wear is only inflicted on the acrylic piece. Inexpensive “boil-and-bite” splints can be made at home by boiling the thermoplastic material and then biting down on it to shape it to the wearer’s mouth. These types of dental splints are oftentimes inexpensive, but not as comfortable as custom splints.        

Dental splints like the ones used for bruxism can also be used to treat sleep apnea by opening the airway and temporomandibular joint disorder by helping to reposition the jaw.