Dental Health Guides
This story of Neuromuscular Patient, Vivian, just recently appeared in Valley Health Magazine. The smile view on the right in the article, is her Pre-Treatment jaw position, what we call "collapsed" or "Overclosed". This jaw position left Vivian with quite a bit of pain in her TMJ and her ear as well. We did Neuromuscular treatment to get Vivian's pain to go away and then rebuilt her bite into the new, relaxed position that you see in the full face picture.
Neuromuscular Dentistry seeks to establish a jaw position based on a harmonious relationship of the three main factors affecting occlusion or "bite"...the teeth, the muscles and the jaw joints
BEFORE (overclosed with pain)...you cannot even see that she has lower teeth due to the "overclosure of her jaws"
AFTER New porcelain restorations (crowns) on the upper and lower in addition to a lower removable partial on the lower
Vivian had old PFM (Porcelain Fused to Metal Crowns) that show the gray/black lines at the gumline after time and also had a lower partial denture that was completely worn through (which is why her bite was collapsed and overclosed which was a painful postion for her).
Our treatment consisted of two Phases. The First Phase was attaining the accurate, pain-free Balanced Neuromuscular Position and then the Second Phase was restoring her mouth with Ceramic Crowns that do not have the dark, unesthetic metal in them and a new partial.
Patient #2 "A.B."
The patient to the right is a male, who with his strong musculature, has been able to nearly destroy his lower teeth. He also is overclosed, like the previous patient, and as a result his jaw is forced backward and it is trapped in that position, except when he tries to push it forward and does the destruction that you see in the next picture below...
These are his lower teeth, demonstrating the tremendous wear from not being in the relaxed, balanced Neuromuscular Position... Unlike the previous patient, Vivian, he does not have any pain due to his muscle strength that can just break teeth and wear them down without any muscle or TMJ pain.
These are his new upper porcelain teeth and his current lower temporary crowns. All of his work has been done in the relaxed Neuromuscular position, which will help him keep his teeth! When the muscles aren't working overtime...there is longevity built in to the restorations which we can't do when the muscles are busy causing clenching and destruction. Have you had restorations break??? Did you wonder why???
BEFORE SMILE (not many teeth showed!)
AFTER SMILE ( now many teeth show!)
Titanium Implants
Allow tooth replacements to be done in a way that eliminates the need to wear a removable partial Denture and you can treat them just like teeth! Floss and Brush just like your natural teeth!
View at right...healing implants awaiting restoration
Implants viewed on x-ray
Restored implants that now function as beautiful, strong teeth!
From our patient Hazel...
"My implants are better than my original teeth! They don't chip and they don't decay! I brush and floss them the same way I brush and floss my natural teeth..."