Dental Occlusion (Bite Alignment) in Seattle
Proper Tooth Alignment Is a Necessity
Teeth provide far more than serving as the center of a beautiful smile. Occlusion, or how your teeth come together when biting, is of paramount importance to enjoying life. Without occlusion, your ability to eat and smile confidently is severely impaired. Dr. Darrin Rapoport understands occlusion from a number of vantage points, given his history as a general dentist and implant specialist, and can restore your bite for maximum function.
How we can help?
Why Is Occlusion Important?
Occlusion is everything. From proper chewing function to oral comfort and implant health, occlusion plays a vital role in nearly every aspect relating to your mouth. Problems with occlusion lead to certain oral risks, such as:
- Jaw joint pain
- Muscle problems
- Bite issues
- Wear on tooth surfaces
- Chips or breaks in restorations
- Fractured, broken or loose teeth
- Fractured broken or loose implants
Protect Your Implants From an Imbalanced Bite
It is important to ensure your implants are successful, which may require services like occlusal adjustments or occlusal guards. Dr. Rapoport begins by evaluating and treating any systemic issues contributing to occlusal problems, treating you as a whole rather than tooth-by-tooth.
Tooth replacement is the number one reason patients visit Dr. Rapoport. As such, occlusion plays a key role in implant success, but it often ignored. Establishing ideal occlusion is dynamic, and may require multiple adjustments over years to maintain. We foster a long-term relationship to ensure your implants remain healthy as time progresses. A leading implant dentist and rated one of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine’s Top Dentists four years straight, Dr. Rapoport is the expert to turn to for occlusal issues threatening your implants.
Types of bites
There are several types of dental occlusion, including:
Overbite: This type of malocclusion is characterized by upper teeth that protrude from the lower teeth.
Underbite: Underbite occurs when the upper teeth are too far behind the lower teeth.
Overcrowding: This common condition occurs when teeth become bunched, crooked, and overlapped due to a lack of space.
FAQs
What causes changes in occlusion?
The alignment of your teeth can be impacted by many factors. Your teeth may be too big or you may not have enough space in your mouth for all of your teeth, leading to overcrowding and misalignment. Additionally, you may have lost a tooth or had one or more extracted, which caused your other teeth to shift. An example would be if you developed malocclusion after wisdom teeth removal. Also, your bite may have become misaligned if you sucked your thumb regularly as a child or engaged in other activities that affect alignment, such as tongue thrusting and prolonged pacifier use. Malocclusion can also be the result of a genetic condition that affects the jaw, meaning it was unpreventable. Teeth grinding, also known as bruxism, may also cause dental misalignment.
What are malocclusion classes?
Malocclusion has three classes:
Class 1: Patients with this common form of malocclusion have a normal bite, but the upper front teeth may stick out from the lower teeth slightly.
Class 2: Also referred to as overbite, this class describes the condition where the upper teeth extend beyond the bottom teeth.
Class 3: This sort of misalignment occurs when the lower teeth appear to extend out beyond the upper teeth.
What are the treatment options?
If you suffer from malocclusion, you can rest assured that there are treatment options available to you.
Braces: These dental appliances can be placed on the teeth to reposition teeth and gradually bring them into alignment, all while helping to reshape the underlying bone structure to produce a permanent shift. Tooth aligners have a similar effect in that they result in your teeth shifting into proper alignment over time.
Tooth extraction: Sometimes, teeth overcrowding may be treated by removing one or more teeth. This increases the space in your mouth and may help address overlapping.
Selective tooth repair: If your Pacific Northwest Periodontics dentist determines that your issues with occlusion can be improved by repairing individual teeth, they may opt to reshape or resize the problem teeth only.
Dental surgery: Surgery can be a solution for some cases of malocclusion as it can help address inherited jaw conditions. Surgery can include reshaping and stabilizing the jaw.
Does it require treatment?
Malocclusion, if left untreated, can lead to several negative effects. You may experience difficulty chewing or biting into food correctly. Overcrowding can make it hard to access areas between teeth, making flossing and brushing much less effective, which can increase the risk of tooth decay and gum disease. You may also have challenges with your speech, including the development of lisps. Mouth breathing, snoring, and other conditions can appear if the malocclusion is not treated.
It is important to seek treatment for issues with occlusion, especially since misalignment issues are generally easier to treat in cases of early intervention.
Can Malocclusion Cause Headaches?
Yes, malocclusion can cause headaches. With malocclusion, teeth are misaligned, and that often leads to jaw strain. This, in turn, can cause significant jaw muscle tension that radiates to the head.
Also, when your teeth are misaligned, your jaw muscles must work extra hard when you chew and talk. All that extra effort can lead to muscle fatigue and tension headaches.
Malocclusion may also be related to temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, which are well-known for their connection to chronic headaches.
Is Malocclusion Mainly an Aesthetic Issue?
No, but that’s one of the most common misconceptions about malocclusion. It’s true that malocclusion treatment can dramatically improve the appearance of your smile, but that’s just one of its benefits.
Malocclusion treatment can help your teeth, mouth, and jaw function normally. It can help prevent:
- Headaches
- Difficulty chewing
- Chronic mouth and jaw pain
- Tooth decay and gum disease
- Speech problems
- Snoring
When your Pacific Northwest Periodontics dentist recommends malocclusion treatment, they’re doing so because it’s the best way to protect your oral and body-wide health now and in the long term.
Can I Wait to Treat Malocclusion Until Later?
Many patients ask if it’s okay to wait until later, when it’s more convenient, to treat malocclusion. Although you could wait, the Pacific Northwest Periodontics specialists strongly recommend that you don’t delay treatment.
Overbite, underbite, overcrowding, and other types of malocclusions worsen over time, causing a broad spectrum of health problems, which is why it’s best (and less costly) to correct them early.
That’s also why orthodontists recommend that children have orthodontic evaluations before age 7. But no matter your age, correcting malocclusion now is a gift to your future self.
How does malocclusion treatment work with dental implants?
Dental implants are the next best thing to having your natural teeth. They’re natural-looking, strong, and securely anchored within your jawbone.
But, just like your natural teeth, the crowns attached to your dental implants may not fit together like they should. If you have a mix of natural teeth and implants, the two may not be perfectly balanced, which could lead to discomfort and long-term issues.
Malocclusion treatments such as occlusal adjustments and guards can solve these problems and help ensure you enjoy a lifetime of strong smiles with your dental implants.
Occlusal adjustments
Occlusal adjustments modify the biting surfaces of teeth and crowns to help them fit together properly and prevent undue force on them.
Occlusal guards
An occlusal guard, sometimes called a night guard, fits over your teeth to create a protective layer between your top and bottom teeth (whether natural teeth, implants, or both). It can help prevent teeth grinding and clenching and protect your bite and oral health overall.
Pacific Northwest Periodontics specializes in dental implants and emphasizes the importance of malocclusion treatment to help protect implant success in the long term.
