Treating Malocclusion

Description

Dr. Bruce Wilderman believes in treating the underlying causes of chips, cracks, and other imperfections instead of simply hiding them with veneers. He will analyze any malocclusion (failure of the upper and lower jaws to meet properly) to identify any factors that led to your dental issues. Once these issues are resolved, you and he can move forward with cosmetic dentistry that can last longer and provide greater benefits.

Dr. Wilderman: Many patients come to us because their front teeth are badly chipped and worn and they want porcelain veneers to fix that. Usually, the cause of their chipping and worn teeth is a poor bite. And a poor bite can be the single most destructive force in the mouth. So to address the cause of why the teeth are worn, you need to examine the bite. The jaw wants to be in the socket while you're chewing. Unfortunately, for most of us, when our jaw joint is in the socket and our lower jaw tries to close into our upper jaw, one or more teeth are in the way of the jaw closing completely. So nature tries to fix that solution because if it didn't, all the force would be directed along the one tooth. My undergraduate education is much different than the average dentist. Most dentists, their undergraduate degree is in biology. Mine is in physics and chemistry. So when I'm engineering a smile, I'm thinking of distributing forces. I'm thinking of what's going to be the best to protect all this new dentistry. How am I going to distribute the load among all these new porcelain restorations so that they don't fracture? Most dentists don't approach it that way. They look at the problem, they see a problem, they fix a problem without really understanding the cause of why someone got into the situation that they're in. So just putting porcelain restorations on someone's teeth can be a mistake. You can set someone up for failure. I'm not in the business of having my patients' restorations fail. I want them to last a lifetime. Announcer: If you want or have been considering a masterpiece smile for yourself, contact our office today.