Occlusal (Bite) Adjustment

Occlusal adjustment goes by many names, such as bite adjustment, bite occlusal alignment, occlusal equilibration, malocclusion treatment, and many others. However, all of them refer to the same overarching procedure — the removal of interferences from your teeth to ensure proper alignment of teeth. Occlusal adjustment equilibration treats misaligned teeth, a bad bite, and crooked teeth, thus preventing severe complications such as malocclusion, bruxism, temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), etc. Dentists usually look for signs of misalignment during regular dental checkups.

• Remove Interferences: There may be interference in your mouth due to dental works like crowns, bridges, and fillings. The occlusal adjustment removes these interferences to ensure a healthy bite.
• Dental Fractures: If you have a bad bite, you also have an uneven distribution of bite force. As such, when you bite down or close your teeth, some of your teeth sustain more impact than others. Over time, this can weaken some of your teeth, leading to the wearing away of enamel and dental fractures and cracks. You need bite alignment to minimize the risk of dental fractures.
• Restorative Dentistry: Your dentist will recommend bite alignment before you opt for certain prosthetic or restorative dentistry procedures, such as dental crowns and dental bridges.
• Prevent Malocclusion: If you don’t treat a bad bite, you may eventually suffer from malocclusion — misalignment of teeth and jaws. Over time, malocclusion leads to severe complications, including constant headaches, persistent bruxism, insomnia, fractured teeth, and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD).
• Orthodontics: You may need occlusal adjustment before you opt for cosmetic orthodontic procedures, such as braces or Invisalign aligners.

• Genetics.
• Losing baby teeth too early.
• Harmful childhood oral habits, such as thumb-sucking.
• Prolonged bottle-feeding or use of pacifiers.
• Poor tongue and swallowing habits.
• Mouth breathing.
• Sustained orthodontic issues during childhood and adolescence.

Your dentist will look for signs of misaligned teeth and malocclusion during regular dental checkups. He may even ask you to bite down on a piece of paper to examine your bite’s alignment. The following signs indicate that you may need occlusal bite adjustment:

• Your jaws don’t close properly on one side of your face.
• Your jaw makes popping or clicking sounds when you open or close them.
• Signs of dental fractures that get worse over time.
• Signs of premature wearing away of enamel.
• Persistent teeth grinding and clenching (bruxism).

• The dentist will ask you to close your teeth and bite down on a piece of double-sided articulating paper. This will allow the dentist to see which side of your teeth are making contact. A healthy bite is one in which both make equal contact together. As such, if only one side is making contact, it’s an indication that its depth is different from the other side.
• The dentist will use fine diamond or carbide burs to shave off some of the dental structure from the side of the teeth making contact. This is done to ensure both sides have the same length of crowns. The dentist may shave the teeth in the shape of a cusp tip or flatten them, depending on the location.
• In a healthy bite, the anterior teeth should make limited contact, compared to the posterior teeth. As such, the dentist will use the same articulating paper to determine if your anterior and posterior teeth are aligned. Based on that, the dentist will shave the relevant teeth to ensure bite alignment.
• After reshaping your teeth, the dentist will ask you to bite down on the articulating paper again.