Cosmetic Dentistry Blog - Dr. Tekin

Malocclusion is a misaligned bite. This includes the well-known overbite and underbite, but can manifest in other, less obvious ways, as well. If your teeth don’t fit together properly when you bite down, you have malocclusion.

Malocclusion can cause serious health problems over time, even if the misalignment isn’t visible or noticeably painful. TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder), a neuromuscular problem of the jaw joint, is a very painful condition, and the symptoms are often seen far away from your mouth. The malocclusion causes tension in your jaw muscles first. These muscles work together with other facial muscles and your neck muscles, which work with your shoulder muscles, and so on. The result of tension in your jaw is tension that radiates throughout your body.

Among many possible pains and symptoms, malocclusion can lead to migraine headaches, neck pain, ringing ears, poor posture, and numbness in you hands. These symptoms are often misdiagnosed by doctors and go untreated leaving you in chronic pain.

Malocclusion can lead to chipped, cracked, or broken teeth, and restorations that fail. It can also make chewing difficult, sometimes difficult enough to cause malnutrition.

Neuromuscular dentistry can correct malocclusion, relieving the pain, restoring your health, and preserving your teeth.