How a “Bad” Bite Affects Your Smile
Have you been experiencing the following symptoms: jaw pain, sore facial muscles, teeth grinding and clenching, worn or broken teeth, difficulty eating, mouth breathing, or headaches? These are all common consequences of malocclusion, or a “bad” bite. This condition can develop as a result of misaligned teeth and facial asymmetry or be the result of a dental crown or cavity filling that has unbalanced your smile. Your teeth are designed to fit together like gears and work in harmony with each other for comfortable biting and chewing. If your top and bottom teeth don’t come together properly (malocclusion), some teeth will touch before others and result in improper distribution of force and pressure.
This imbalance in your bite will lead to numerous short- and long-term consequences that affect your dental function and overall comfort. A customized bite adjustment in Oakdale, PA can effectively treat your symptoms and provide a permanent improvement in your oral function. This procedure requires a wealth of knowledge in dental occlusion and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) function to provide truly beneficial and lasting results. With extensive training and experience in occlusal adjustments, our dentist and dental team at Advanced Dentistry are qualified to treat the root cause of your symptoms and help you find long-term comfort and health with this targeted treatment.
Treatment to Restore Comfort and Function
We’ll first complete a comprehensive evaluation of your oral structures, teeth, and bite function. We partner with multiple insurance companies to make payment affordable and convenient. If we determine your case needs more specialized treatment than a bite adjustment, such as orthodontics or surgery, we may refer you to a specialist for care. However, in most cases, we can treat your symptoms with an occlusal adjustment here in our Oakdale, PA dental office. This painless procedure involves making slight adjustments to the surfaces of teeth to restore harmony to the teeth and bite.
To know where to make these adjustments, and how much adjusting is needed, we first have you bite down on a special colored articulating paper. This paper leaves marks on your teeth and alerts us to teeth that are meeting at a higher force than others. Next, using a dental drill, we’ll make precise and minimal adjustments to surfaces of the problem teeth. This process requires patience and careful attention to detail. Our goal is to create a comfortable and harmonious bite while removing the smallest amount of tooth enamel possible. This treatment may take multiple appointments before proper occlusion is achieved.
Benefiting from a Bite Adjustment
After your occlusal adjustment in Oakdale, PA, you’ll experience improvements in your function and comfort. To help ensure these adjustments last long-term, we may recommend a nightguard, which protects your teeth from any future grinding and clenching. In general, your bite adjustment will produce the following benefits:
- Protect teeth from cracks and breaks
- Improve jaw joint function
- Offer ease of jaw movement
- Eliminate improper bite force
- Enhance oral health
- Reduce teeth grinding and clenching
