What Are the Effects of a Buccal Occlusion?

There is less relationship between the bite and joint pain than a lot of dentists would have you believe. As an orthodontist that examines over 40 new patients every month and has treated over 8,000 patients in the past 20 years, I have seen thousands of horrible bites. If there was a definite relationship between the bite and jaw pain, the majority of my patients would be miserable. The fact is that very few of them (less than 2%) ever report pain. On the other hand, I often see new... more

Difficult question, difficult to answer. How much "buccal" is the "buccal occlusion"? Sounds like your orthodotnist is trying very hard to get you the best bite that he can and teeth aren't coopeprating too well. We do have cases sometimes that are very hard to get the teeth to go where we want them to. Sometimes we just can't get there. One of the most difficult decisions in orthodontics is "when do we stop". The... more

In my estimate, it seems like your missing a key component to your description. As an orthodontist, when I refer to buccal occlusion, it is classified as either one, two, or three (generally, it can get more specific). A "textbook" buccal occlusion is class I, but that really doesn't mean it is physiologic. Plenty of individuals with class I occlusion have temporomandibular joint dysfunction and headaches(TMD). TMD is very multifactorial and has many causalities, occlusion... more