Dental occlusion – what it means and how many types there are

What is dental occlusion?

 

Dental occlusion (popularly known as "bite") - the way the teeth interlock when chewing and at all times during swallowing, including at night. This reflex is involuntary and distributes the force of the masticatory muscles to the jawbone thousands of times, either through the movable teeth or implants. In the case of correct dental occlusion, the contact between the teeth should be as high as possible. When the teeth are incorrectly positioned on the arches (malocclusion), the contact between them can be affected, and in the absence of well-proportioned contact, one or more teeth risk being overloaded.

 

Types of dental occlusion

The most common types of dental malocclusion (incorrect bite) are: open dental occlusion and reverse dental occlusion. 

• Open dental occlusion: it is manifested by the existence of a very large space in the anterior area between the upper and lower teeth;
• Reverse dental occlusion: put open dental occlusion, it occurs when the lower teeth are more prominent than the upper teeth, due to the fact that the mandible is more developed than the maxilla, the latter being positioned backwards;
• Crossbite: a combination of the two conditions is crossbite, in which some of the upper teeth are correctly positioned on the outside of the lower teeth, while some of the upper teeth are positioned on the inside.

You may even be suffering from malocclusion and have already decided that it is not a problem that needs to be prioritized because you don't necessarily feel discomfort. However, regardless of the name it goes by and the degree to which it makes its presence felt (unsightly appearance, joint pain, impaired chewing, etc.), a malocclusion is a serious condition that requires treatment as soon as possible to avoid further complications.

 

Dental malocclusion in people with periodontitis

If you find yourself in the situation of suffering from both malocclusion and periodontitis, it is good to know that one of the causes that facilitated the onset of periodontitis could be a poor dental occlusion and its uncorrected in time. As a result of too much pressure on some of the teeth, they have gradually developed symptoms closely related to the onset of periodontitis (inflammation, pain, increased tooth mobility, etc.).

The most common case in the practice of a patient suffering from periodontitis is that of a patient who has both dental implants and mobile teeth. According to the rules of dentistry, the first contact when closing the mouth should never be at the level of the dental implant and that is why the dentist will make selective grinding which will determine that the first contact will be at the level of the natural teeth. Being a patient with periodontitis, the natural teeth are already moving and thus the entire force of the first occlusal contact will be transmitted to an already mobile tooth.

The masticatory force is transmitted to the bone in the form of an inflammation that will be superimposed on the already existing inflammation and which has already determined the mobility of the tooth that from that day on will take over the entire force of the first occlusal contact. Thus, if measures are not taken urgently to distribute the occlusal forces as well as possible, coupled with a continuous anti-inflammatory action on the maxillary bone, there is a certainty that the tooth that bears the first occlusal contact will be lost. 

If not intervened regularly, one after the other, the teeth that successively become the teeth that withstand the force of the first occlusal contact to be lost. Of course, it is not indicated to extract all the teeth and perform complete rehabilitations on implants because, in this case, the buffer effect represented by the natural teeth in the way of masticatory forces disappears, and all the force equivalent to the weight of an adult will be transmitted to the temporomandibular joint with the risk of producing its inflammation and the appearance of the most severe syndrome in dentistry: temporomandibular dysfunction characterized by headaches and muscle pain.

The recommended attitude for patients with periodontitis is to extract the mobile teeth as late as possible, because they represent an unrivaled buffer in the transmission of occlusal forces to the jawbone, a buffer that is totally absent in dental implants. In addition to this force-absorbing role, mobile teeth also have their own sensitivity called proprioception, which makes the patient stop if he or she clenches too hard, a sensitivity that is totally absent in the case of dental implants.

Therefore, it is recommended to stop the evolution of parondonontosis, treatment that can be performed with dental laser, non-invasive, painless, without antibiotics.

If it happens that some of the movable teeth can no longer be maintained, we resort to prosthetizing the area with unitary implants to try to distribute the masticatory forces as evenly as possible over all dental units. If the patient cannot be fitted with dental implants, it is recommended to use ceramic or mobile dental works in order to reduce the occlusal force applied to each of the remaining mobile teeth.

However a dental occlusion is realized, taking into account that the mandible has an infinity of possible positions, overloads will certainly be transmitted to the remaining mobile teeth and to the abutment teeth that support the ceramic dental bridges.

 

Correcting occlusion with braces

In addition to the above, in case of dental problems it is recommended to keep natural teeth for as long as possible, and not to replace them with dental implants which give the impression of healthy teeth.

The most commonly used method in case you suffer from malocclusion is to fix your teeth with braces. Through the force applied by it, the braces have the role of modifying the position of the teeth, and aligns them in a correct way both from an esthetic point of view, but especially from a functional point of view. The force exerted on the teeth causes them to develop a mobility that allows them to be repositioned in the arch. To avoid overstressing the teeth and negatively affecting them, a gradual pressure will be applied, the treatment thus having a long term of action (+6 months, depending, of course, on the severity of the problems).

Apoor dental occlusionis just one of many dental problems encountered, as can be seen both medically and practically in everyday life, most of them are interconnected, generating each other and creating favorable environments for each other to develop, like a domino game in which the last piece to fall corresponds to the falling teeth.

If you too suffer from dental malocclusion, don't hesitate to make an appointment online to ensure its correction as soon as possible.