Question: The crowns have never felt right. What’s the matter?
Answer: A large part of the Calcium Therapy approach includes the bite, that is, how the teeth fit together, or occusal interdigitation. We always check out the bite when crowns or fillings are placed and when there is a bite problem, gum recession, or sensitivity trouble. Invaribly we have to equilibrate the bite, adjust the dental fillings and crowns, etc. to fit the natural bite. Every patient has their own specific bite and we must learn to deal with that bite when it walks in the door.
Changing that bite to the likes of me, the dentist, or for the TV camera is not a very clever idea. A traumatic, manufactured bite is easily the cause of hyersensitivity and disfunction of the teeth, TMJ pain, bone or tooth loss, etc…and periodontal disease. We check out the bite and correct it so that the patient is biting on their own teeth as much as possible and secondarily on the dental work. In other words, “Get the dental work out of the way.” The more dental work one has the more the bite is manufactured and harder to make work for the patient.
The “old-fashed dentists” taught us to design into the natural bite. Their “functional and cosmetic” dentistry was superb, hidden so well, no one would dream the patient had any dental restorations. Ask George Washington, or John Kennedy, or my last patient, Angie. She had a lot of dentistry by a great dentist, before we ever saw her. We did not have to touch it. She does not have to fit the dental work. It fits the her as if was not even there. That’s our goal too when placing crowns and fillings, or correcting the bite.This can be done easily with no anesthesia and no damage to the crown.
Kind regards, Mark, DDS