KAREDENT | Dental Practice News | Are your teeth a pain in the neck (or head)?

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MANY people are suffering headaches, neck pain, earache, tinnitus (buzzing or ringing in the ears) or clicking jaw because of their bite problems.

Are your teeth a pain in the neck (or head)?

By Roy Morris BDS

When a bite problem exists, the brain adjusts the jaw position to achieve maximum tooth contact. In doing so, the jaw is 'twisted' to make the teeth fit. This 'twisting' is done by the muscles of mastication. There are only two groups of muscles in the head, the masticatory, jaw moving muscles, and the muscles of facial expression. The largest group are the masticatory.

It has been shown that the only normal contact between teeth occurs during eating.

Many people with a bite problem clench or grind their teeth. This is often more pronounced at night. Research has shown that this can occur for up to eight hours. If clenching or grinding is occurring during the day, it can be for even longer periods.

Research on people with perfect bites shows that they cannot grind their back teeth. It has been shown that the only normal contact between teeth occurs during eating. Further research shows that contact occurs for only 8 - 15 minutes in the twenty four hours of the day. There is no tooth contact during speech or relaxing the jaw.

Compare this with the bite problem.

When the jaw has to be postured forwards to make the teeth fit, the muscle tension results in earache. The joint ligament is stretched and this can cause tension in the small ligament attached to the ear ossicles, resulting in tinnitus.

Tension in the joint muscle also pulls the disc forwards causing a click. If left untreated, the ligaments become stretched. The head of the joint now presses on the back of the disc causing pain.

Forward posture also causes the bracing muscles of the neck to become painful. This results in neck stiffness and headaches in the base of the skull. The muscle imbalance also causes the head to be pulled out of alignment. Compensation is made by twisting the spine - resulting in arm and back pain.

"Since training with the top American specialists, I have developed an interest in this area and have successfully treated several hundred people with this problem."

Roy Morris, BDS