A bite or occlusion refers to the relationship between the maxillary and mandibular teeth when they make functional contact. The manner in which the occlusal or biting surfaces of the teeth make contact affects other teeth, gums, jaw muscles, the jaw joints, and your general dental health. If your upper and lower teeth align properly when you close your mouth, you chew effortlessly and naturally.
However, when you have issues with the bite, you are said to have malocclusion, or a bad bite, which causes several oral issues and adversely affects your quality of life. Recognizing these signs of a bad bite, such as headaches, jaw joint pain, tooth breakage, excessive tooth wear, head and neck muscle pain, or tooth sensitivity, is crucial to seeking help from a dentist for bite equilibration.
Overview of Bite Adjustment
Bite adjustment or equilibration is a treatment procedure that entails careful examination of your occlusion by a dentist to check the manner in which chewing forces or forces that stem from chewing could be causing muscle pain, joint pains, teeth damage, or gum tissue breakdown. After the assessment, the dentist performs a bite adjustment, which entails trimming the occlusal surfaces of the teeth to change force and load distribution over the teeth, jaws, and other relevant muscles. However, for severe bite issues, you might require orthodontic treatment to adjust the bite.
The treatment involves several appointments to identify the teeth causing uneven force distribution and the muscles affected, and to develop an adjustment plan outlining the teeth-trimming and reshaping process.
When there is a bite imbalance, some teeth carry more force than others, leading to excessive wear, while others bear no force. The imbalance leads to several oral problems that manifest as signs of a bad bite.
Signs you Need a Bite Adjustment
Several signs could indicate an unbalanced bite. If you are experiencing these symptoms, you are encouraged to seek the help of a dental professional for a bite adjustment. Common signs that you have an occlusion problem are:
Jaw Joint Pain and Fatigue
If you often complain of persistent pain or discomfort in the jaw joints and nearby ligaments, it could be a sign that you require a bite adjustment. The muscles near the jaw joint also fatigue as they constantly try to find a position where closing the jaw does not cause discomfort. Because a position like that does not exist, the muscles near the jaw joints feel sore and tired. You experience pain or fatigue after eating, especially with chewy foods, or at the end of the day.
Joint Noises
If your jaw is making a pop sound or noise when you open or close your mouth, it could be a sign that your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is under stress due to an unbalanced occlusion. You should seek treatment early because if the problem is not addressed, you could develop a TMJ disorder in the future.
Excessive and Uneven Tooth Wear
When your bite is unbalanced, certain sections of the teeth can contact harder than others or fail to make perfect contact. When this happens, the teeth begin to wear unevenly. So, when you check in the mirror or feel your teeth and notice some surfaces are more worn than others, while others appear normal, it could indicate a bad bite that causes uneven force distribution during biting or chewing. The wear is gradual, so sometimes you might not notice it until the dentin is exposed, triggering tooth sensitivity.
Tooth Sensitivity when Biting
Another way to tell that you have a bad bite and need an adjustment is if certain teeth are experiencing sharp pain or sensitivity. The teeth experiencing sharp pain might be those exposed to extreme force when biting, leading to accelerated wear. The wear exposes the dentin and nerves, causing sharp pain when you chew or bite using the affected teeth.
Problems Chewing on One Side of the Teeth
If you prefer chewing on one side of your mouth over the other, you may have a bad bite and need a bite adjustment. You unconsciously chew on the side that feels more comfortable or avoid the uncomfortable side. Discomfort on one side of the mouth when chewing can be a sign of an unbalanced bite, causing the muscles on that side to work harder than the others. The problem is that when you stop using one side to chew, the teeth on the side you chew with frequently experience increased wear, leading to tooth sensitivity and pain. Eventually, it becomes uncomfortable to use the side that you were comfortable chewing on.
A Recent Dental Work
If you have recently undergone a dental procedure, such as a dental crown, dental filling, or dental bridge, and your bite has been off since, you might need a bite adjustment. If the restoration is slightly high, you will experience bite problems. However, these issues do not require medication or an invasive procedure. Your dental professional only needs to trim the restoration to restore occlusion balance.
Also, if you have undergone a major orthodontic procedure, such as braces or Invisalign, to correct malocclusion, but still the teeth do not seem to touch harmoniously, a bite adjustment can fix the pending minor issues to align your teeth.
Muscle Spasms Around the Neck and Face
If you are experiencing muscle spasms or tightness on one side of the face or jaw than the other, your bite might be unbalanced, and you should consult a dentist for an examination. The spasms are from muscles on one side overworking to compensate for the other side.
Minor Headaches and Migraines
Studies show that over 30% of patients' headaches are due to uneven occlusion. So, if you are frequently dealing with headaches, particularly in the jaw area, it is a sign that your bite is uneven and you need an adjustment before the issue progresses.
Reasons you Should Treat Uneven Bite or Occlusion Early
It is common for people experiencing an unbalanced bite to adapt to the problem, assuming that the discomfort will go away on its own. The adaptation happens unconsciously for some individuals, and you will find that they have been chewing on one side of the mouth for months. Unfortunately, postponing treatment does not make the problem go away. Untreated bite issues can lead to major oral problems in the future.
The ability to open and close your mouth is controlled by five crucial muscles that generate extreme forces whenever you chew or clench your teeth. When there are tiny issues that prevent your teeth from coming together, the larger forces being translated from the uneven bite turn into destructive forces that damage or strain the structure supporting the teeth, including the ligaments, jawbone, jaw joints, and neck and head muscles, leading to severe problems.
The common issues associated with untreated bite issues are:
- TMJ Disorder
If you do not address the malocclusion, the jaw joints will be affected, leading to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. The TMJs are the joints in front of the ears that help you to move the jaw, talk, or chew. When you fail to treat malocclusion, these crucial joints deteriorate over time, causing issues like jaw locking, headaches, earaches, shoulder and neck pains, chronic jaw pain, face pain, and migraines, symptoms that affect your quality of life. So, when you start experiencing minor TMJ issues, it could be indicative of an uneven bite, and you need to treat it early before the issue advances into a TMJ disorder, whose symptoms are severe.
If you have already developed a TMD, you can use oral appliances that prevent contact between your teeth. Unfortunately, these only protect the teeth, but the force on the jaws does not change. If these appliances do not produce results, you should consider bite adjustment before turning to surgical treatment options.
- Accelerated Dental Attrition
Another long-term effect of an untreated bad bite is attrition, which refers to the long-term wear of the enamel due to the coming together of teeth. As you apply uneven force on teeth during biting, clenching, or chewing, the occlusal or biting surface of the teeth sustains damage. Continued wear over the years completely wears the enamel, exposing the inner contents of the tooth, such as the dentin and pulp. If this happens, you will experience severe tooth sensitivity and require major restorative procedures, such as dental crowns, and, in the worst cases, tooth removal. Dental attrition happens over the years.
However, an uneven occlusion accelerates attrition, meaning you could be dealing with tooth sensitivity early enough, a problem that could have been avoided through a timely bite adjustment.
Other problems that could stem from an untreated unbalanced bite and why you should not leave an uneven occlusion untreated, include:
- Fractured or chipped teeth due to excessive force application on some teeth, which leaves the enamel weak and prone to chipping or fracturing.
- Nerve or muscle disorder
- Teeth clenching at night, as the jaws attempt to find a natural position
- Mild or severe tooth pain that could trigger extensive dental work, such as a root canal
- Crowded or cracked teeth
- Chronic jaw fatigue
- A flawed smile
- Damage to dental work, such as implants and dentures
- Clicking noise in the jaw joints
- Bone recession
- Loose teeth due to the weakening of the jawbone and the structure anchoring the teeth
- Severe migraines
- Gum disease
While untreated bite issues can have severe consequences, there is a way out. Seeking bite adjustment early can restore your bite. The answer is to understand the signs of the unbalanced bite and know when to seek treatment before the problem advances.
How an Experienced Dentist can Help
If you are experiencing signs that your upper and lower teeth are not fitting perfectly, you should visit an advanced dentistry service for examination and bite adjustment before the condition worsens. Your dentist will help with the signs in several ways, including:
Conduct a Thorough Dental Examination
One way a dentist will help with your signs is by examining your jaw and analyzing signs of an unbalanced bite. The signs the dentist will look for include uneven wear, fractured teeth, failing restorations, popping sounds in the jaw joints, and unbalanced teeth contact. Once the dentist diagnoses you with a bite problem, they will use advanced diagnostic tools, such as digital radiography, photographs, and CT scans, if they suspect TMD, to assess the severity of the condition.
Also, the dentist will conduct a bite analysis. Here, the dentist asks you to bite on a thin piece of Mylar paper, which marks the sections of the mouth where teeth come into contact with color. The dentist uses the diagnostic materials to determine the best approach for your occlusion issue.
Perform a Bite Equilibration or Adjustment Procedure
Once the dentist has identified areas of contact and areas of minimal or no contact, the next step is to perform a bite adjustment or equilibration. The procedure is performed where there are minor interferences of the occlusal surface. The dentist utilizes special tools to trim or smooth the marked occlusal surfaces of the teeth to eliminate the unevenness that was causing your bite problems. Only a small portion of the enamel on the biting surface is removed to restore normal tooth contact, preserving the teeth's structural integrity.
The reshaping of the occlusal surface is virtually painless, as the enamel has no nerves. After smoothing the uneven bite surfaces, the normal occlusion is restored. The results of the adjustment could be immediate, and in some cases, you can wait for a few days before noticing the improvement in your bite.
Comprehensive Treatment
In severe cases, a simple bite or occlusion adjustment is not enough. Contingent on the extent of the malocclusion, your dentist might recommend:
- Tooth reconstruction is necessary if the uneven bite has caused tooth fracture or chipping. If the damage is extensive, a dental filling, crown, or bridge can fix the issue.
- Orthodontic procedures, such as braces, Invisalign, or retainers, can be used to realign severely misaligned teeth.
- Use of custom splints or night guards at night to maintain or enhance teeth alignment
When looking for advanced dental services, opt for a practice that offers several procedures you might require under one roof, tailored to your needs.
Find a Reputable Advanced Dentistry Service Near Me
If you want to enjoy functional, durable, and beautiful teeth for decades, you need a stable bite or occlusion. How do you know that you have a proper bite? Typically, the absence of uneven bite signs can indicate you have a normal bite. However, if your upper and lower teeth are not making a functional contact, you need to see a dentist immediately for a bite adjustment. This means you must understand the signs you need to look out for. At Northridge Advanced Dentistry, we will thoroughly examine your jaw and signs to determine if you need a bite adjustment. Call us today at 818-701-3010 to discuss your signs and determine whether an occlusal adjustment is necessary.
