Occlusal Treatment at Clent Dental Care
Occlusion is the way your teeth fit together.
This can affect your jaw joint and all the muscles surrounding it.
Why do these problems occur?
If you bite normally on your back teeth you will apply a maximum pressure of 100lbs in bruxing (grinding) you can apply up to 1000lbs !
Obviously overloaded systems break-down . Overloaded muscles hurt. Neck and shoulder muscles brace your head against the jaw muscles causing pain in them.
The lower jaw being out of position causes the head posture to change, thus causing muscle spasm and this can affect body posture or balance and weight distribution problems.
It is possible to realign your joints and muscles to a point of balance again by occlusal splint therapy.
A splint is a small closely fitted removable clear plastic appliance adjusted very accurately to a tolerance of less than 20 microns.
Most patients need only to sleep in the appliance to relieve symptoms.
In a few patients the occlusion needs to be corrected to completely relieve symptoms and so to align the joints tiny adjustments of your teeth may be necessary, this is called occlusal equilibration or if the discrepancy is larger orthodontic treatment or crowns may be needed.
Dr Nathan Turner is a member of B.S.O.S British Society of Occlusal studies.
https://www.clentdentist.com
info@clentdentist.com
Tel: 01562 884160
2 Eton Walk Hagley DY9 0PG