Do you have pain or discomfort if you chewed a small piece of gum or a bagel? Have you noticed your teeth getting shorter, thinner or moving? Do you feel like you have more than one bite? Do people tell you that you grind your teeth at night? Do you keep time to music by tapping your teeth together during the day or other non-functional movements? Do you feel like you have to squeeze to get your teeth together? These are symptoms of having bite or occlusal problems.
Nocturnal bruxism can include severe wear to the teeth with time and is a problem where the patients grinds. It can cause jaw, muscle and joint discomfort along with severe wear and broken teeth.
Treatment includes a true diagnosis and creation of hard, acrylic smooth guards to protect the teeth from each other and allow non-constricted gliding of the lower jaw against the guard.
Occlusal dysfunction is an exaggerated movement of the lower jaw during chewing in response to an uneven meeting of the teeth. Symptoms can include jaw muscle discomfort, chipping of the edges of the front teeth, and wear of back and front teeth, and destruction of dental restorations.
Treatment varies with the ultimate goal of getting teeth to meet simultaneously on closing side to side and front to back in a position consistent with where the lower jaw wants to close in its joint.
A constricted chewing pattern is a condition where the front teeth are in a place where they are in interference in the normal chewing pattern. Symptoms can include thinning of the front teeth, jaw discomfort, and looseness of the front teeth.
Treatment involves proper diagnosis and varies with the ultimate goal of getting the front teeth to not come into contact during function.
