Bite Problems and Related Symptoms

By Maribel Vann, DDS

Many patients do not understand that a lot of pain and other symptoms can be the result of bite problems. Your bite reflects the position of your skull bones, TMJ and jaws, and if these are not aligned properly, you can have unexplainable symptoms from head to toe.

So, I thought it would be helpful to use an example of this in order to demonstrate for patients how a multitude of symptoms can relate to bite problems, and ways these problems can be treated.

A female patient came to see me in 2009 regarding chronic symptoms she had been experiencing for the past five years. Her symptoms consisted of the following

Stiff neck

Frequent buzzing and ringing in her ears

Hearing loss

Stuffiness and itching in her ears

Loss of balance

Deep pain behind the eyes

Lower back pain

Teeth clenching

She had been wearing a mouth guard for treatment of her teeth clenching for several years, but it did not help at all.

A thorough examination of her occlusion (bite) was performed and a complete set of dental x-rays and bite records were taken. After reviewing all her records, the diagnosis was a “right torsion” (the bite plane was elevated to the right). See photograph A below.

A misaligned jaw is what causes a misaligned bite. The maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw) have a direct relationship with the skull (head) and its surrounding structures (eyes, ears, nose and TMJ) and the neck, shoulders and pelvis.

The back view of her skull x-rays also shows the bite plane is elevated to the right. See photograph B below.

In order to level her bite plane, she was treated with an upper and lower Advanced Lightwire Functional (ALF) appliance. Photograph C shows the patient's bite after treatment was completed. The bite plane has leveled. All of the symptoms listed above disappeared, even before treatment was completed.