If you are at least in your late forties, you probably show signs of tooth wear in your mouth. The signs we most often see are chipping of the front teeth, large facets on either the upper or lower teeth, recession areas at the gum line of teeth in the upper and lower arches, especially the eye teeth and the teeth just behind them, sensitivity to cold, and or a definite “meshing” of the teeth when you slide your jaw either from side to side or back and forth. When these signs are present, there’s also a strain on the muscles that control your biting and chewing. When these muscles are under strain, it can cause the nerves that govern these muscles to give you symptoms that, while typical for this condition, are very different from the ones in the paragraph above. Patients who exhibit these secondary symptoms need to have their bite restored to an ideal position because there is no way to measure a non-ideal position. That is accomplished by either just adjusting the bite using computerized measurements, or restoring or redoing many of the old worn or fractured teeth or restorations in the back and placing porcelain veneers on the chipped or broken teeth in the front with the use of our computerized measurements. These secondary symptoms can vary from person to person. You may have one or several or all of the symptoms. They range from head or facial pain, jaw clenching at night, neck pain, difficulty in speaking or swallowing, limited mouth opening, a jaw that locks, headaches, tingling in the fingers, to eye strain. These symptoms can be mild to severe and change back and forth depending on the time of day or recent activity. Typically people who have these symptoms go from medical doctor to medical doctor for a cure, often receiving medication that only masks the problem, but never cures it. Or just getting a “pat on the shoulder” with the words, “You’ll just have to learn to live with this.” Sometimes these symptoms can be so severe that they can completely take over your life.