The three brackets
Chemist boil-and-bite (roughly £10–30). A one-shape-fits-all tray you soften in hot water and bite into. Cheap, and better than nothing for occasional use — but bulky, loose, and short-lived. A loose guard concentrates force rather than spreading it, and for regular grinders many find it makes things worse rather than better.
Dentist-made in practice (commonly £250–600+). A properly custom appliance made from impressions or a scan, fitted and adjusted chairside. This is the clinical standard, and the reason for the price is real: surgery time, lab fees, and the clinician's assessment. If you need in-person care — jaw problems, complex restorations, a diagnosis first — this is money well spent.
Custom direct-to-consumer (roughly £100–250). The same lab-made custom plate, ordered from home using an impression kit or an existing scan, without the chairside appointments. Our Soft is £119 and our clinical-grade Hard £199, with in-clinic fitting available at £294 if you want the chairside adjustment as well.
Where the price difference actually goes
Three things: fit (custom-made from your own teeth versus a generic tray), material and build (matched to your grinding force rather than guessed), and clinical oversight (whether a dentist reviews your case at all before something is made). The last one is where cheap online options quietly differ from us — plenty of mail-order services fabricate unseen.
The real arithmetic
Cost-per-night is the honest measure. A £199 hard plate lasting 12–18 months is roughly 35–55p a night. A £20 chemist guard replaced every couple of months is comparable — for far less protection. And the genuine cost of no protection is dental: a cracked molar or a replaced crown runs into hundreds or thousands, which is the number that should actually anchor this decision.
What about the very top end?
Reinforced appliances for severe bruxism sit above the standard range — our Ultra Plate is £849 — and they exist for people whose grinding destroys ordinary plates. For most grinders that's unnecessary; for plate-breakers, the replacement cycle they're already paying often exceeds it.
Not sure which build you need?
Our free three-minute assessment reads your symptoms and prescribes the right plate — Soft, Hard, or our reinforced Ultra for the hardest grinders.
Take the free assessment →When to seek care instead of self-treating: if your jaw locks or clicks painfully, if headaches are new, severe or worsening, or if you've had recent facial trauma, see a clinician first. Our consultation screens for exactly these and will route you to clinical care rather than sell you a device.