TMJ And Bite Issues

At The Mugford Center

TMJ Treatments

When you suffer from temporomandibular joint problems, you may be in a great deal of pain. TMJ is a condition that deteriorates the joints that control your mouth. According to the American Dental Association, this often occurs after years of teeth grinding and clenching, bite problems, jaw injuries, or arthritis. Classic symptoms include headaches, neck pain, and clicking sounds when you chew. At The Mugford Center, our doctors may use various treatment plans for TMJ cases.

TMJ Technology

Using advanced leading-edge technology, our doctors can see your facial anatomy in three dimensions and diagnose your unique situation. Our iCat Cone Beam CAT Scan is a state-of-the-art piece of dental technology that helps us access TMJ and upper airway issues. The scan helps us view nasal septum, nasal airway, sinuses, oral airway, cervical spine position, and TMJ position.

With this information, we’re able to access and understand the anatomical relationships in the neck and head area resulting in an accurate and timely diagnosis to use in planning your treatment.

Achieve a Balanced, Comfortable Bite with Occlusal Adjustment

Occlusal (Bite) Adjustment is a specialized procedure that helps correct misaligned teeth, an uneven bite, crooked teeth, and malocclusion by removing interferences that prevent your teeth from closing properly. When your bite is misaligned, it can lead to jaw pain, teeth grinding (bruxism), and temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD), causing discomfort and long-term dental complications.

At The Mugford Center, our experts carefully evaluate your bite during routine checkups, looking for signs of misalignment that may be affecting your oral health. If an occlusal adjustment is needed, we’ll recommend a customized treatment plan to restore harmony to your bite, alleviate discomfort, and protect your teeth from excessive wear.

If you’re experiencing jaw pain, teeth grinding, or bite discomfort, schedule a consultation today to find out if an occlusal adjustment is right for you!

Misaligned Teeth

Occlusal adjustment goes by many names, such as bite adjustment, bite occlusal alignment, occlusal equilibration, malocclusion treatment, and many others. However, all of these terms refer to the same overarching procedure — the removal of interferences from your teeth to ensure proper alignment of teeth. Occlusal adjustment equilibration treats misaligned teeth, a bad bite, and crooked teeth, thus preventing severe complications such as malocclusion, bruxism and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD). Our doctors usually look for signs of misalignment during regular dental check-ups.

Importance of Occlusal Adjustment Equilibration

Remove Interferences: There may be interference in your mouth due to dental works like crowns, bridges, and fillings. The occlusal adjustment removes these interferences to ensure a healthy bite.
Dental Fractures: If you have a bad bite, you also have an uneven distribution of bite force. As such, when you bite down or close your teeth, some of your teeth sustain more impact than others. Over time, this can weaken some of your teeth, leading to the wearing away of enamel and dental fractures and cracks. You need bite alignment to minimize the risk of dental fractures.
Restorative Dentistry: Your dentist will recommend bite alignment before you opt for certain prosthetic or restorative dentistry procedures, such as dental crowns and dental bridges.
Prevent Malocclusion: If you don’t treat a bad bite, you may eventually suffer from malocclusion — misalignment of teeth and jaws. Over time, malocclusion leads to severe complications, including constant headaches, persistent bruxism, insomnia, fractured teeth, and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD).
Orthodontics: You may need occlusal adjustment before you opt for cosmetic orthodontic procedures, such as braces or Invisalign aligners.

Causes of Bad Bite and Misalignment

Losing baby teeth too early.
Harmful childhood oral habits, such as thumb-sucking.
Prolonged bottle-feeding or use of pacifiers.
Poor tongue and swallowing habits.
Mouth breathing.
Sustained orthodontic issues during childhood and adolescence.

Occlusal Bite Adjustment Diagnosis

Our team will look for signs of misaligned teeth and malocclusion during regular dental check-ups. You may be asked to bite down on a piece of paper to examine your bite’s alignment. The following signs indicate that you may need occlusal bite adjustment:

Your jaws don’t close properly on one side of your face.
Your jaw makes popping or clicking sounds when you open or close them.
Signs of dental fractures that get worse over time.
Signs of premature wearing away of enamel.

Persistent teeth grinding and clenching (bruxism).

Occlusal Bite Alignment Procedure

Our Doctors will ask you to close your teeth and bite down on a piece of double-sided articulating paper. This will allow Dr. Mugford or Dr. Bruce to see which side of your teeth are making contact. A healthy bite is one in which both make equal contact together. As such, if only one side is making contact, it’s an indication that its depth is different from the other side.
Next, your Doctor uses a fine diamond or carbide burs to shave off some of the dental structure from the side of the teeth making contact. This is done to ensure both sides have the same length of crowns.
In a healthy bite, the anterior teeth should make limited contact, compared to the posterior teeth.
After reshaping your teeth, you will bite down on the articulating paper again.

Bite or Occlusal Guards

If TMJ is caused by grinding, you may be fitted with a mouth guard that is to be worn overnight. The mouth guard helps protect your teeth from being worn down or chipped. Prevention is very important. In addition, reducing grinding forces is especially important for those with periodontal (gum) disease or those with dental implants.

Beyond protecting your teeth, a bite guard reduces or relieves the pain and tension in your jaw muscles. This is achieved by helping to raise the bite and reposition the jaw to a position that helps relieve any symptoms and discomfort.

As a result, having this cushion between your teeth can:

Relieve the strain and stress in your jaw muscles
Reduce jaw pain, tightness, and soreness
Reduce earaches, headaches, and facial pain

The Occlusal Guard will be constructed with specific and individualized properties to treat your symptoms. It is worn either on the top or bottom teeth and is made of a hybrid acrylic material that is softer on the inside and harder on the outside.

What is an occlusal guard?

Occlusal guards help protect your teeth from wearing down, especially the contact (chewing) surfaces. Which means that it can only do its job while you are wearing it. Occlusal guards are also called night guards and are made from a thin but strong material in order to cushion the teeth from tooth-to-tooth contact if you unconsciously grind your teeth and clench your jaw.

With the help of a night guard (that you wear while you sleep), the force and pressure are absorbed to break up any grinding and clenching you might unconsciously do. These guards simply help protect your teeth from the damage caused by bruxism and are custom-tailored to your mouth to maximize your comfort while wearing it.

Unfortunately, unconscious night-time teeth grinding exerts a stronger jaw force than clenching in the daytime where you may notice and control it. Without a night guard, your bruxing could leave you with:

Broken teeth
A leveling or flattening of the teeth
Pain in the jaw, face, and head
Sensitive teeth
Gum recession

As you can imagine, this damage to your teeth and gums can be costly to fix, which costs you in additional pain, money, and time — which is why you should not wait to seek treatment.

While our experienced dentists, Dr. Mugford and Dr. Bruce, offer excellent restorative treatments, including dental implants, we prefer preventative solutions to stop tooth and gum issues from the get-go. Also, keeping your own natural teeth is ideal when it comes to your smile, so we’re actively on the side of taking preventative measures rather than repairing damage after the fact.

Occlusal guards can be worn in the day but are mostly worn at night to protect your teeth, keeping them from breaking under the unfettered force of the clenching jaw muscles. And while that is great news, the jaw muscles are still actively grinding, which means the jaw, head, neck and shoulders can still leave you hurting.

So in short: an occlusal guard can help prevent further damage from being done to your teeth, but it will not stop you from grinding or clenching your teeth.

To learn more about our occlusal treatments, give us a call to schedule an appointment at (410) 721-7801.

What our patients say…

Absolutely, the best dentist visit. Led by wonderful Dr. Mugford, whom provided his dental expertise and great experience at the dental office. The entire staff were welcoming and friendly individuals. Walking in the office with dental concerns, Dr Mugford guided me through my situation and confident to addressing the correct way for home dental care. The best experience from the front desk, x-rays, examination and close out billing. Wonderful Dentist and really like his leadership to train interns. Thank you and plan to refer all family members to The Mumford Center.

5 Star Google Review: AC B