Nightguards in Pottsville, PA
If you wake up with a sore jaw, a dull headache, or teeth that feel tender for no clear reason, a custom nightguard from Fellows & Smink Dental Associates can quietly take the pressure off while you sleep.
What a Custom Nightguard Actually Does
A nightguard is a thin, custom-fit piece of dental-grade plastic that sits over your upper or lower teeth while you sleep. It keeps your top and bottom teeth from grinding against each other and softens the load on your jaw muscles. When patients ask us about nightguards in Pottsville PA, it’s usually because something has been off for a while: a partner mentions the noise at night, or a molar starts feeling sensitive, or the headaches show up around the same time every morning.
Grinding and clenching (the clinical term is bruxism) happens to a lot of people, and most of them don’t realize they’re doing it. Stress is a common trigger. So is an uneven bite, a missing tooth that shifts the way the others meet, or simply how your jaw rests overnight.
Dr. Scott Fellows treats nightguards as a quiet, practical fix. They don’t change your bite permanently. They don’t require any drilling or numbing. They just give your teeth and jaw a break, night after night, so the wear stops getting worse.
Signs You Might Be Grinding at Night
Most patients who end up needing a nightguard didn’t come in asking for one. They came in for a cleaning or a cracked filling, and we noticed the wear pattern on their molars. Flat spots where the cusps used to be. Small chips along the edges of the front teeth. Sometimes a hairline crack running down a back tooth.
Other signs show up away from the dental chair. A tight or tired jaw when you first wake up. Temple headaches that fade by mid-morning. Teeth that feel sensitive to cold but look fine on an X-ray. A clicking sound when you open wide. If a few of those sound familiar, it’s worth mentioning at your next visit.
We use digital X-rays with the Overjet Iris system and intraoral cameras during your exam, so if there’s wear or a stress fracture starting, we’ll show you the picture on the screen. It’s easier to understand what’s happening when you can see it yourself, and it makes the decision about a nightguard a lot more concrete.
How We Fit a Nightguard at Fellows & Smink
The process is short and simple. At your first visit, Dr. Fellows checks your bite, looks at the wear on your teeth, and talks through what you’ve been noticing. If a nightguard makes sense, we take impressions of your teeth so the guard is shaped to fit only your mouth. Store-bought versions are bulky and one-size-fits-most, which is why people stop wearing them after a week.
The impressions go to a dental lab, and the finished guard comes back to us usually within a couple of weeks. You come in for a quick fitting appointment. We check that it sits flush, that it doesn’t rock, and that your bite feels even when you close. If a spot rubs, we adjust it right there.
You wear the guard at night, rinse it in the morning, and keep it in the case we send home with you. Most patients get used to it within a few nights. It should feel snug but not tight, and it shouldn’t change how your teeth come together during the day.
What's Included When You Get a Nightguard Here
Your nightguard visit covers more than just the appliance itself. It starts with a full look at your bite and jaw, because grinding is sometimes a symptom of something else (an old crown that’s a hair too tall, a tooth that drifted after an extraction, early gum issues that shift the way teeth meet). If we spot one of those, we’ll walk through it with you before we move ahead.
From there, you get the impressions, the custom-made guard from our lab, the fitting appointment, and any small adjustments needed in the first few weeks. We’ll also show you how to clean it and store it so it lasts. A well-cared-for nightguard typically holds up for several years before it needs replacing.
Because we keep a wide range of care under one roof, anything else that comes up (a chipped tooth that needs a filling, a cracked molar that needs a crown, a gum concern) can be handled in the same building by the same team. No referrals across the county, no starting over with someone new.
Why a Nightguard Is Worth the Small Investment
The math on a nightguard is pretty straightforward. A custom guard costs a fraction of what it takes to repair a cracked molar with a crown, or to replace a tooth that’s been ground down past saving. Patients who grind hard can fracture a tooth in a single bad night. We’ve seen it.
The other piece is comfort. Morning headaches and a tight jaw wear on you in ways that are hard to measure until they’re gone. Patients often tell us, a month or two in, that they didn’t realize how much the clenching was affecting their sleep until they stopped waking up sore.
A nightguard won’t fix every cause of grinding, and we’re upfront about that. If stress is the driver, the guard protects your teeth while you work on the rest. If your bite is part of the picture, we can talk through what else might help. Either way, you’re not losing more tooth structure while you figure it out.
Ready to Stop Waking Up Sore?
Call Fellows & Smink Dental Associates on West End Avenue in Pottsville to schedule a bite check and find out whether a custom nightguard is the right call for you. We’ll walk you through what we see and what your options are, with no pressure either way.