Bite Balancing

Restoring Comfort. Protecting Teeth.

Often times when treating complex dental problems, it is necessary to lower the risks of biting forces in order to deliver predictable, long term outcomes for dental treatment. Many patients have reported failed dental work due to uneven biting forces causing undue mechanical stress/force on the restorations leading to failure. The goal of this process is to achieve equal, bilateral, simultaneous contact of the upper and lower teeth when closing thereby equalizing biting forces on all the teeth. This is especially important in cases where individuals are already missing teeth as the remaining teeth are already being subjected to increased forces.

This simple process involves several steps:

• Relax the chewing muscles that control how and where the upper and lower teeth come together by using a retainer-like removable appliance for a few weeks.
• On models of the upper and lower teeth, determine what combination of orthodontic tooth movement, restorative treatment (crowns, overlays), or simple equilibration (slight tooth evening) might be necessary to achieve bite harmony. This step in the process is done with the patient watching the process assuring a complete understanding of the advantages of bite balancing.
• Design a plan to balance the bite based on the model equilibration as mentioned above.

The benefits of a balanced bite are many and include:

• Correct biting force distribution.
• Decreased forces on the jaw joints (TMJs) and chewing muscles.
• Lowered risk for dental restoration failure.
• Increased ability to chew.
• Creation of a single bite location aids in segmenting dental treatment over time thereby making Advanced Dentistry more affordable.