I have a smile that has always embarrassed me. When my mouth is relaxed, you can’t see my teeth at all. It’s like a big black gap. I often have trouble saying certain letters and have jaw pain almost all the time. The only break I get from it is when I am wearing my mouthguard. You can see my teeth a little better too then. A friend of mine thought that porcelain veneers might be helpful. I just want to make sure that is the right path before I move forward.
Lisa
Dear Lisa,
I am very glad you wrote. This can be fixed, but you have to do it very carefully. The dentist you choose will be the most important thing. Bear in mind that I have not examined you, but based on your description, it sounds like you have two issues going on. The first is a collapsed bite. The second is some TMJ complications.
Fixing this will require more than just porcelain veneers. The solution is to open up your bite with a full mouth reconstruction. It is usually done with dental crowns and possibly some porcelain veneers combined. It is extremely complicated and advanced. It requires a dentist who has advanced post-doctoral training.
Three of the top institutions that offer the training necessary for a dentist to perform this treatment are:
- The Dawson Academy
- The Pankey Institute
- The Las Vegas Institute of Advanced Dental Studies
If you have a dentist who is not qualified to do this, then you could end up with a disastrous result. There have been patients whose bites were so thrown off by this that they ended up in pain for years. I don’t want that to happen to you. There is nothing wrong with asking a dentist about their qualifications. Start by looking online for dentists who consider themselves TMJ Dentists. Then make sure they have studied at least one of the three institutes I listed above.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.