Clenching and grinding teeth together can cause teeth to chip, fracture, roughen, wear, become loose or move to another position. Bruxism can shorten and alter the shape of front teeth, making them unaesthetic and can even negatively influence speech!
If teeth are badly broken, worn short or have poor aesthetics, restorative treatment with crowns or veneers may be required.
To understand why teeth may get to these states, check out our educational section on Tooth Wear.
Equilibration
If the natural fit of the teeth has been worsened by bruxism, often the teeth are fractured, chipped and roughened and may benefit from a bite adjustment. Dentists often call adjustment of one’s bite an equilibration. The scope of an equilibration or bite adjustment can range from refining the bite of a only a few teeth, to a general improvement in how all the back and front teeth fit together and slide against each other.
Not everyone needs to have a refined bite. This has to be determined individually by a dentist who understands how to distinguish a healthy from an unhealthy bite (occlusion).
With a healthier bite, all of the available back teeth touch at the same time, with the same pressure. The contacts should be centered and straight up-and-down. Back teeth should not be painful, nor should they vibrate, wiggle or move when tapped or pressed together. Biting contacts that are off-center on the teeth or heavier on one group of teeth over another may contribute to teeth fracturing, loosening or becoming painful.
Following an equilibration, the front teeth should rub smoothly forward and back from your back tapping bite. Edges of the front teeth will be polished smooth to resist further chipping. Front teeth should not be painful, nor should they move, vibrate or change position when they are rubbed together.
Protection from rubbing and clenching is best accomplished with the nightly appliances mentioned here. Bite adjustments are designed to protect the teeth from daily use when not wearing a protective appliance. The bite adjustment better distributes any tooth-to-tooth-touching pressures so the teeth can better resist daily forces without becoming loose or painful. These adjustments involve precise reshaping and polishing to make them smooooooth and eeeeeeven!
Before Equilibrating—Damaged Edges
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After Equilibrating—Smooth Edges
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Check out the magnified edges below. Rough edges like these are weak and prone to further fracturing during chewing and bruxism. Left rough, they are at risk of requiring more extensive bonding or porcelain veneers when the damage accelerates to larger fractures. These rough areas catch and flake away when they contact each other or even certain foods.
After they are reshaped and polished, the teeth are now stronger, less likely to chip during use. If nightly bruxism is the cause of the roughness, wearing a protective nightly appliance is recommended to keep the teeth from rubbing against each other.
Before Equilibrating—Damaged Edges
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After Equilibrating—Smooth Edges
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