Night Guards
If your child grinds or clenches at night, their teeth are paying for it. A custom night guard cushions growing teeth through the night — and it’s comfortable enough that they’ll actually keep it in.
A quiet shield for a noisy night.
Lots of children grind or clench in their sleep — often without anyone knowing until the enamel shows it. A night guard steps in where a toothbrush can’t.
It’s a slim, custom-fit appliance your child wears while they sleep, molded to their exact teeth so it cushions the constant pressure of grinding and clenching instead of letting it wear enamel down. This isn’t the bulky, boil-and-bite kind from a drugstore — it’s made from a precise model of your child’s mouth, which is why it stays comfortable and actually gets worn. And because grinding is often tied to how a child breathes and sleeps, fitting a guard is also a moment to look wider: nighttime grinding can be a clue worth following. That’s Whole Child Wellness — we protect the teeth tonight and pay attention to what the grinding might be telling us. (For daytime sports, that’s a different appliance — see our mouth guards.)
Grinding is loud on enamel.
Left unprotected, nightly grinding does slow, quiet damage — the kind that’s far easier to prevent than repair.
It Protects Enamel
Grinding flattens and chips young teeth over time. A guard absorbs that force so the enamel your child can’t regrow stays intact.
It Eases Mornings
Clenching all night can mean sore jaws, headaches, and cranky mornings. Cushioning the pressure often quiets all three.
Custom Means Worn
A guard only works if it’s in. Because ours are made to fit your child’s exact teeth, they’re comfortable enough to become a habit.
It Prompts the Right Questions
Grinding can be linked to sleep and airway. Fitting a guard is also our cue to look at the whole picture, not just the teeth.
What unprotected grinding costs
Night grinding rarely announces itself — most parents only learn about it from worn, flattened, or chipped teeth at a checkup, or from a child who wakes with a sore jaw. By then, enamel has already been lost, and enamel doesn’t grow back.
Unchecked, that wear can lead to sensitivity, cracked teeth, and jaw discomfort — and repairs that a simple, comfortable guard would have prevented. Protecting the teeth early is the gentle, inexpensive move; waiting turns a nightly habit into restorative work. A guard is the kind of small step that saves a much bigger one.
For the child you can hear from the hallway.
If you’ve heard grinding through the bedroom door, noticed flattened or chipped teeth, or your child wakes with jaw soreness or headaches, a night guard is often the simplest fix. It’s also worth asking about for restless sleepers and kids who clench under stress — the wear can be happening even when the sound isn’t.
We’ll check for the signs at your child’s visit, protect the teeth if a guard makes sense, and flag anything about their sleep worth a closer look. Not sure if your child grinds? Mention it and we’ll take a careful look.
Four calm steps to a protected night.
Easy to make, easy to wear, easy on your child.
-
Talk and check
We look for the signs of grinding and clenching and talk through what you’ve noticed at home.
-
Capture the fit
A quick, comfortable scan or impression of your child’s teeth — nothing sharp, nothing stressful.
-
Craft the guard
Your child’s guard is made slim and precise, so it protects without feeling bulky.
-
Fit and follow up
We check the fit, coach the routine, and keep an eye on the wear at future visits.
Night guards, answered.
The most common clues are a grinding sound at night, complaints of a sore jaw or morning headaches, and teeth that look flattened, worn, or chipped. Many parents don’t notice at all — which is why we check for the signs at every visit and will tell you if we spot them.
It can be. Over time it wears down enamel, can chip teeth, and often brings jaw soreness and headaches. Because it happens during sleep, it can also be a signal worth exploring — grinding is sometimes linked to how a child breathes and rests. A guard protects the teeth while we consider the bigger picture.
No — they’re built for different jobs. A sports mouth guard absorbs a sudden impact during the day; a night guard cushions the steady, repeated pressure of grinding and clenching at night. If your child both plays sports and grinds, they’ll each do their own job. See our mouth guards for the sports version.
That’s exactly why we make them custom. A guard shaped to your child’s own teeth is slim and comfortable in a way a bulky drugstore version never is — which is what turns it from a fight into a habit. Call (760) 730-3456 and we’ll talk through the right fit for your child.