Address
167 Berserker Street,
North Rockhampton Qld 4701
We are located just off the cross roads of Berserker and Elphinstone Streets, and almost opposite the Library.
Phone
(07) 4926 2240
To contact us via email please use the form on the contact us page.
Neuromuscular Dentistry
Your bite, or occlusion, is simply the position of your jaw when your teeth are together. Your occlusion is very important and can affect your health in many ways. Until recently, most dentistry has been based on the assumption that wherever your bite naturally occurs, is the correct position. However, natural (habitual) occlusion is not always necessarily a fully functional and comfortable position.
The growing field of Neuromuscular Dentistry goes beyond using your habitual bite as the basis for planning treatment. It considers the entire system that controls the positioning and function of your jaw. The neuromuscular dentist seeks to establish a jaw position based on a harmonious relationship of the three main factors affecting occlusion - the teeth, the muscles and the joints. The resulting jaw position is called neuromuscular occlusion.
A misaligned or bad bite places excessive pressure on the jaw joints and the soft-tissue and muscles surrounding them, this forces the jaw into a strained position. The resulting stresses may radiate throughout the head, neck and even involve the back.
Pain, though not always associated with an improper bite, may be constant or intermittent, lasting minutes, hours, days or even years- and is described as headache, neck pain, teeth and jaw pain. Clicking, grating, snapping or popping sounds in the jaw joint may become apparent due to excess stresses placed on the jaw joints.
Worn, chipped and/or broken teeth, broken fillings, changing position or shape of your smile, head and neck pain, tooth sensitivity, tooth loosening or mobility and toothache- all of these signs and symptoms may indicate a misaligned bite. The possible cause of a misaligned bite can be many and varied. Loss of teeth, poor alignment or natural wear, grinding or clenching, tongue position, muscle imbalance, chronic mouth breathing, poor posture, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, physical and psychological trauma may all result in a bite problem. The optimal bite is to have the teeth together whilst the muscles are relaxed. This position translates as a harmonious relationship between teeth, muscles and joints. There are several treatment options which may be offered to you to achieve the optimal bite.
Before treatment options can be explored, a record of your current bite needs to be compared with a record of your optimal bite. This is called a Bite Registration. A Bite Registration is a recording of your current bite and your optimal bite. These records are taken using a sophisticated computer program which records and interprets muscle activity and the movement of the jaw during function.
Initially, it is necessary to relax the chewing muscles and close the relaxed jaw to a point where it is comfortable. I.e. where there is no muscle strain. To relax the muscles, a gentle pulsating stimulus is applied to the muscles. The computer detectes and records muscle activity to determine the level of relaxation.
Finding this optimal jaw position before begining any major dental treatment greatly increases the life of both your restorations and your teeth. This information will allow us to determine the best bite for both comfort and aesthetics.
Neuromuscular dentistry allows you to achieve optimal dental health. Its aim is a harmonious balance between your jaw joints, your teeth and the muscles that position your lower jaw. It is very common for neuromuscular dentistry to be able to provide relief from a wide range of problems, such as headaches and migraines, dizziness, tingling fingers and neck and shoulder pain. It allows you the opportunity of maintaining optimal function and exceptional aesthetics for the rest of your life.
Neuromuscular Dentures
Neuromuscular dentures are a very good solution to the problems experienced by people who have lost many or all of their teeth.
There is no need for denture wearers to suffer from the effects of poorly fitting, marginally functional and unpleasant looking dentures. It is common for people to experiment with many different economy dentures due to the perceived cost savings but they usually end up with a drawer full of dentures that they can’t wear and a bathroom cupboard full of denture adhesive. As the passage of time dims the recollection of what it is like to be able to enjoy a meal, many denture wearers despair of ever being able to chew properly and resort to a compromised diet of soft foods.
Traditional dentures are fabricated using the “best guess” technique of where to position the teeth and jaws. Sometimes the denture wearer is able to accommodate to the arbitrarily chosen position and the dentures are deemed to be satisfactory. Other people are exquisitely sensitive to an anomalous bite position and are never able to adapt. These are the people who continue to suffer.
Neuromuscular dentures are very different. When the bite is developed using neuromuscular techniques, the bite position is chosen based on an understanding of where the patient’s own teeth would have been positioned to allow optimal health of the jaw joints and jaw muscles. This is done using computerized jaw tracking and a real time display of muscle activity so that the position of the bite is known to be physiologically and anatomically coincident. Similarly, the shape of the borders of the dentures is anatomically determined by the use of ultra low frequency TENS. With an anatomically and physiologically optimal foundation for your dentures, we are then able to apply all the skills we use with natural teeth to give your dentures an aesthetic appeal that is unsurpassed. Every detail of tooth placement, size, shape, proportion, inclination, colour and contour is considered to give you dentures that will enable you to speak, eat and smile with complete comfort and confidence.
Implant-retained Dentures
For those people who do not want to accept the compression effect of complete dentures that are supported solely by soft-tissue, we are able to offer implant retained dentures and bridges. These are made using a computer aided placement technique that ensures that the implants are placed in the exactly ideal position. This technique also minimizes any discomfort after the placement of the implants. Many people are surprised to find that they had four or more implants placed and they only needed a Panadol for pain relief. This is a remarkable improvement over the more old-fashioned implant placement techniques.
The biggest regret of most of our patients with neuromuscular dentures is that they didn’t get their state–of–the–art dentures sooner. It is so nice to be able to eat what you want, and not what you have to! They also enjoy the compliments that go with looking younger and healthier.
