Cosmetic Dentistry Blog

Malocclusion is the name of the condition that involves teeth that are crowded or crooked. Otherwise, it is known as a “bad bite”. In some cases, the upper and lower jaws may not meet properly and although the teeth may appear straight, the individual may have an uneven bite.
 
Orthodontics or braces are used to correct this. Is there any worse news for a teen than “you need braces?”
 
Correcting the problem can create a nice-looking smile, but what to do with your child's aesthetic concerns in the mean-time? Invisalign for teens can help in many cases. For teens, they want straight teeth, and as their parent you want to make the best decision, and set them up for a beautiful smile for life.
 
Invisalign Teen takes a modern approach to straightening teeth. With a series of clear aligners that gradually straighten your child’s teeth, Invisalign is comfortable, affordable and effective. By using clear aligners, they can continue brushing and flossing the way they normally do. And without brackets and wires, your teen will have the confidence of a great smile even while their teeth are being treated. To make life easier on you and your teen, each aligner comes with a small, inconspicuous Blue Dot Wear Indicator, which helps you know when they are ready for their next set of aligners.
 
You know your teen, so don’t worry, you get up to six free replacement aligners, because accidents happen.  Contact Dream Smile Dental if you believe your teen may need orthodontic work. Invisalign may be able to help you through those teen years.

What is TENS?

Transcutaneous Electrical Neural Stimulation (TENS) is a term given to battery operated instruments that provide a gentle painless electrical stimulus through the skin to nerve pathways. At Dream Smile Dental, we use ultra-low frequency TENS to deliver a stimulus through the nerve pathways of the head and neck. These gently exercise the muscles controlled by those nerves, and causes the muscles of the head and neck to relax.

How are muscles related to dentistry?

Head, neck and jaw muscles play a very important role in your dental health. Different muscles come into play for posturing, opening, and closing the jaw and swallowing. The muscles that keep your jaw from falling open are small and go from the jaw upward through the cheeks, into the forehead and around the ear. If your teeth don’t fit together properly, these muscles are over-worked. Subconsciously holding these muscles tense for a long time can result in muscles spasms, and tension. Tense muscles restrict blood flow and oxygen to those muscles, and also prevent the washing away of waste products like lactic acid. This eventually leads to headaches or other head and neck pain.

Can’t I just relax these muscles?

No. If your teeth don’t fit together correctly, you subconsciously hold your jaw in a position that often causes muscled tension. It is very difficult to change this on your own and often requires a lot of training. Ultra low frequency TENS relax the muscles of the head and neck.

How does it work?

Electrodes are placed on your skin over the nerves controlling the muscles of the head and neck. The TENS unit is attached to these electrodes. It delivers mild stimulus to those nerves every 1.5 seconds. This causes the muscles to react, and it causes the rhythmic exercising of the muscle. As time passes, these muscles begin to relax and blood flow through them is increased. Because it is repetitive it causes the rhythmic exercising of the muscle. As time passes, these muscles begin to relax and blood flow increases clearing away lactic acid build up and producing healthier more relaxed muscles, resulting in comfort and relief. In most cases, the muscles become relaxed after 45-60 minutes.

When does Dream Smile prescribe TENS?

If we are treating you for a dental issue where we want to relax the head and neck muscles in order to find your best bite, TENS is applied in the office. However, there are occasions when we will prescribe a small TENS unit for home use called the BNS-40. This is a much smaller version of the office  unit which applies the same stimulus to the muscles.

We may prescribe the home unit for the following:

•   To relax your muscles before you come to the office for dental treatment or analysis.
•   To relieve muscle tension pain.
•   To determine whether relaxation of your facial and neck muscles will lead to pain relief.

What would you think if someone told you that a mouth guard can make you stronger, improve your flexibility and increase your balance? Those are the benefits a Pure Power Mouthguard (PPM). Custom fitted, the Pure Power Mouthguard, properly aligns the jaw putting the entire body in equilibrium.

When the body is in equilibrium, the muscles are completely relaxed and are no longer compensating to hold the body's posture together.

The muscles now have the capability to release more energy, power, strength, flexibility and increased range of motion to the body. Professional and amateur athletes from many sports are praising it, including Terrell Owens and Manny Ramirez.

This appliance, derived from neuromuscular dentistry, shows how connected your bite is to the rest of your body. The idea is to find the ideal bite position (where the muscles and joints are most relaxed ) and build that position into the appliance.

The bite is found by relaxing the muscles and then jaw tracking is done to see, in real time, where the bite is most relaxed. After recording these measurements and creating models of the mouth, we can fabricate the PPM. Once the PPM is placed in the mouth, the jaw automatically moves into the correct position instantly liberating stored energy. It has been found that when a person is in this position, they are better able to use their strength, increase their range of motion, and improve their balance. Background muscle tension is relaxed allowing them to use their body more efficiently.

How is a Pure Power Mouthguard different from a regular mouth guard?
A regular mouth guard is made of material that is heated up and then the teeth are squeezed into it. This material is not durable or comfortable which why you see athletes chewing on the guard and taking it out. 

The pressure-heat laminated mouth guard fits on the teeth, but the material shifts the bite so that the muscles have to work harder. It has been found that athletes with these ill fitting guards may even perform worse with this type of guard.

The Pure Power Mouthguard is a comfortable custom-fitted appliance, using specialized computer technology to pinpoint and capture your ideal bite position. If you or a friend is serious about your sport, call Dream Smile Dental to see if you are a candidate for the Pure Power Mouthguard.