It started at age eight when my dentist decided I had “too many teeth in my mouth”. As was common practice in those days, he selectively removed several baby teeth and gave me an upper plate (a bit like a Hawley retainer). Then he surgically removed four unerupted premolars, left the plate there for another year and left the lowers to do their own thing, which they did.
This left me with a deep bite and although my uppers were reasonably straight, the lowers were anything but.
I hated them for many years and was starting to have jaw problems, so in my mid-forties I had a couple of years in braces. I wasn’t a hundred per cent happy with the result but the deep bite was gone and my teeth looked way better than pre-braces.
About six months ago I developed a seriously painful TMJ on one side and a very clicky TMJ on the other. I self-diagnosed the problem as being bite related. When I bit down, my jaw moved back as far as it possibly could and I was convinced that this was the cause of the problem and the pain.
I found a web site http://www.ortho-tmj.com/tmj--tmd.html that had a couple of photos on it which showed exactly what I believed my problem was.
I found an orthodontist, made an appointment, and went for a check up with my dentist. My dentist was in total agreement with my diagnosis. He said I have a great occlusion, which is true, but it is in the wrong place.
Unfortunately, after waiting two months to see the orthodontist, she did not agree and told me that the problem was due to clenching my teeth together and that I needed to relax. She went on to say that 80% of TMJ problems are not bite related. I later discovered that this is a common misconception with many orthodontists. What she didn’t understand was what happened in my TMJ when I clenched, or in fact just bit down.
Being totally unconvinced and still in pain, after some research I found someone who specialised in TMJ problems and who understood the principles of neuromuscular dentistry. They seem to be a rare species.
Within the first few minutes of a 90 minute examination, she knew exactly what my problem was and commented that, considering the position of my bite, I was lucky I could still open my mouth (there are some who might suggest that would be a good thing).
She then spent 90 minutes measuring, testing, and documenting my condition. I was able to show her where my “comfortable” bite was, which assisted her greatly.A couple of weeks later, she had developed a comprehensive treatment plan which involved firstly building up my molars and premolars to confirm the position of the comfortable bite. This was to be followed by orthodontic treatment to move those teeth into the comfortable position.
I had the build ups there for about a month and now have them only on my lower second molars, with wedges on the back of my two upper central incisors. For the first time in six months, I’m totally pain free, my jaw moves as it should and my bite is where it should be. Now we just need to move my teeth into the correct positions. So at the age of 64 I’m now ten days away from being back in braces for 18 months or so.
To be honest, being back in braces doesn’t really bother me. I’ve done it before, I know what to expect, and I’m just happy that it is going to fix my problem.
Something that I have learned both from my current specialist and from my own research is that many orthodontists do not accept the relationship between bite position and TMJ issues and that although one’s bite may have very good occlusion, if it is not in the correct place it can cause serious issues. This is apparently a contentious issue in the orthodontic community.