Tanner Appliance—NTI Appliance

Treatment of Clenching and Grinding With Dental Appliances

Dental appliances (night guards, occlusal splints, bite splints…) are designed to protect the teeth from nightly clenching. Because the teeth touch the appropriately designed appliance, the appliance spreads out the forces and cushions the teeth. Muscle/tension headache pain, migraine pain and temporal mandibular pain are managed with dental appliances. These appliances contribute to muscle relaxation, hence the pain relief.

The general protective appliance goals are to:

Reduce any pain: tooth, gums, jaw muscles, jaw joint, headache or migraine pain that is related to nightly clenching/bruxing.
Protect teeth from intense unconscious nightly forces that can crack, chip or roughen the teeth and age a smile.
Protect and reduce the intense forces that cause teeth to loosen or change positions.
Stabilize the position and health of the teeth, muscles and joints.

The Tanner Bruxism Protection Appliance

The Tanner appliance is custom designed and fitted to the lower teeth to protect them from unconscious nightly bruxism. The appliance is designed that so all of the back teeth touch at the same time in order to distribute the forces of clenching through these teeth to the protective appliance. The front part of the appliance is designed to allow the jaw to rub smoothly from one side to the other, with little frictional resistance. Since the appliance is hard, it supports the bite, but it is slightly softer than your valuable natural teeth. If destructive grinding wear habits persist, the appliance will absorb the abusive wear, preserving your natural teeth and smile.

Nightly bruxism often damages teeth and alters how teeth fit together when tapping, pressing or rubbing. This altered fit can further damage the teeth and become a resistance source for tooth, muscle, headache or jaw joint pain. The Tanner appliance is the only appliance where a person can “test” or “try-out” the design of an improved bite before any teeth are reshaped or restored. If wearing this “test” bite improves a person’s symptoms and reduces any loosening of the teeth, then these changes can often be applied directly to the teeth.

When the Tanner appliance is fitted on the lower jaw, it is less noticeable to the tongue, and more comfortable during talking and swallowing. It must be thin in these areas to accomplish this. Proper shaping and thinning of an appliance takes considerable artistic skill, so that it can be worn with comfort and confidence.

Imagine the nightly damage to these teeth, the headache and muscle pain without the protective Tanner appliance. She wears this to prevent problems.

NTI Tension Suppression System Appliance

The NTI-TSS appliance (Nociceptive Trigeminal Inhibition-Tension Suppression System, developed by Jim Boyd, DDS, is designed to alleviate migraine headaches. Its ingenious front-tooth-contacting-design reduces the muscular forces that contribute to migraine and muscle tension headaches. Dr. Boyd’s website thoroughly covers the indications for the NTI appliance and the reasons for its successes. Additional information is found by visiting Dr Boyd’s web site.

This animated image is supplied courtesy from Dr. Jim Boyd.

Soft Athletic Mouthguards or Whitening Trays

These mouthguards, because of their soft and flexible nature, often encourage additional clenching. The soft material may wedge between teeth, increasing the risk of fracturing or causing tooth movement and pain. Long-term use of soft appliance is discouraged. Soft appliance applications are for very limited and specific short-term purposes only and require careful monitoring by a dentist. They may be cheap, but are usually useless and risky for long-term use.