Dental Crown Smile Gallery
Our Santa Rosa, CA office serves Sonoma County & the Bay Area including San Francisco, Petaluma, Napa
I remember the first time I met Jeanne. She had a sense for precision and detail that I do not see in many clients. She had done her research and she had good understanding of what she was looking for. Her husband is a retired dentist. We preceded though the interview and exam. Jeanne’s desire was to veneer the upper ten teeth. She wanted to improve the color and rebuild the jagged edges.
I discovered that Jeanne had a deeper problem than just the jagged chipping edges of her teeth. She has had a long history of grinding (bruxing) her teeth, jaw pain and migraines. As a result, the bone supporting her teeth had become enlarged causing a condition called Tori (extra bone protuberances) growths. In fact the bone inside the lower jaw was growing so large; there wasn’t enough room for the tongue. Having a number of clients like this through the years, I knew this was associated with a major bite problem, which would need to be addressed in order to give her what she wanted in the end.
Our next step was a neuromuscular work-up to look for a clue why Jeanne was bruxing so much. It was discovered that Jeanne had major disharmony between her resting state of lower jaw muscles and her functional bite. In other words, Jeanne had to overwork her jaw muscles to get her teeth together. This physiological disharmony was the main perpetuating cause for grinding.
Think of what happens when you get a raspberry seed stuck in one of the biting grooves on a molar. If you just leave it there, before you know it, several hours have passed. It is uncomfortable and you try to adjust it by biting on the raspberry seed to crush it into a more comfortable position. This is similar to what happens when the teeth don’t fit together in harmony. This cycle of grinding becomes a perpetuating subconscious habit.
With Jeanne’s new smile, she also enjoys a new bite that has taken care of the grinding and head aches. For more information on the subject, see Relieving Head and Neck Pain.
Our office is located in Santa Rosa, but we welcome patients in from San Francisco, Sonoma County & Bay Area.