Occlusion is the way your teeth fit together Headaches, neck pain, tooth sensitivity and tooth wear are among the many symptoms that could indicate your teeth are out of alignment. Dr Turner is the only local member of BSOS with an interest to treat this often overlooked condition. We can realign your joints and muscles to a point of balance again by occlusal splint therapy (this is a fully fitted removable clear plastic appliance) and/or occlusal adjustments of your teeth. This can affect your jaw joint and all the muscles surrounding it. Dr Nathan Turner at Clent Dental is a member of B.S.O.S British Society of Occlusal studies.
So when do problems occur?
If you bite normally on your back teeth you will apply a maximum pressure of 100lbs, however 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.
If your occlusion bite is out of alignment it can lead to:
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.
Further Treatment
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 then orthodontic treatment or crowns may be needed.
Hear about our occlusal treatment from our patients.