Bite Splints

Wearing a bite splint at night is a good idea both for articular and muscular pain. Basically, all known types of splints help but the Michigan Splint is the preferred one because it encloses all the teeth at the same time and does not bring about any changes to the position of the teeth with long-term use.

Only in case of pronounced grinding of the teeth with painful chewing muscles one has to use splints which only enclose the front teeth. While grinding the teeth these splints lead to a pain stimulus of the front teeth which provokes a reflective inhibition of the chewing muscles and a relaxation effect.

It used to be believed that bite splints work by simulating an ideal indentation of the teeth. However, today it is assumed that they work in a different way: mainly by changing the pattern of activation of the chewing muscles, which brings relief to those (muscle) fibres that are particularly under stress and disturbing entrenched movement stereotypes such as grinding of the teeth.