Re: Question for any dentist here

When you look at actual studies, you find that chewing puts very little
force on a tooth. You push hard when you have a large bolus of food in your
mouth. The closer the teeth come to touching, the lighter the force
becomes. Actual tooth to tooth contact during eating is very light and for
fractions of a second at a time. Perhaps eating cooked spinach may get a
few extra seconds of tooth contact during the entire meal, but not much
force. A damaged tooth may let go during chewing, but the damage did not
occur during chewing. During chewing, if you unexpectedly encounter
something very hard (olive pit, peppercorn, walnut shell, etc.) a reflex
will suddenly open you mouth very wide. I am sure you have experienced this
before.

During the day,,,,,,,,,, studies with pressure gauges on teeth show that a
person can *intentionally* put 300-600 PSI on a first molar (depends on
whose study you look at). These gauges are difficult to use during sleep,
so as far as I know, there are no pressure studies done during sleep.
However, we can attach electrodes to the outside of the face and measure
muscle contraction (not PSI, but a degree of muscle strain). We find that
the same person (if they are a clencher) will exert 14 times greater muscle
contraction during sleep. Think about the pressures involved........

Even if we were conservative and said you only put 200 psi on a tooth during
sleep. But,,,,,, you still do this for 4-8 hours EVERY DAY ! ! !
Eventually, you would break hardened steel if you did this for this long,
every day for enough years. The amazing part is that teeth don't break more
often under this stress.

Ever wonder why you have more fractured teeth? Wonder why you have had more
than one tooth die? Think about what possibilities are out there.

--
/

Amatus

/
"REP" <rep~@inanna.com> wrote in message
news:%yLbi.40312$5j1.32190@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <opvbi.14194$RX.13122@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Amatus Cremona" <Nicola@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Perhaps your crowns are poorly made, no way I can tell from my desk.

If I hold my face up reeeeeeal close to the monitor ...

Not "poorly made" perhaps, but closer to "just barely adequately made."

My experience is that people who have trouble getting the occlusion
"tuned"
properly, are clenchers. They may are often called grinders by dentists
who
don't recognize what is underneath the grinding process. Clenchers often
get muscle spasms that they are not aware of and have trouble closing
into
the same position repeatedly (especially after a longer dental
appointment).

Grinding is a LIGHT force activity which takes many years to manifest any
wear on teeth. Clenching is the forceful squeezing of the jaws (much
worse
during sleep--and not apparent to patients). Clenching with isometric
grinding is the forceful clenching while the body (subconsciously) tries
to
move side to side and front to back. This bends teeth, causes recession
and
sensitivity, and BREAKS teeth. These patients typically have 2+ RCT and
3+
crowns.

Well, I'm soon to join that crowd, with 3 RCT, 6 crowns and one
removeable bridge appliance. At my appointment today, I did ask if I
showed any evidence of clenching, and my dentist says that she doubts
that clenching caused the break of #3. She thinks it is more likely due
to #4 and #2 being absent and my using the right side more for chewing
anyway, since #12 (lingual caries) and #13 (deep decay, needing a crown
to restore) and #15 (composite blowout, extracted in November) hurt so
much.

#30 was abcessed when it had the RCT ... and now I can afford the crown;
#31 has "large mesial caries" and is so deeply decayed a RCT is
necessary. Most of my problems, I think, are due to a long period of
poverty and no insurance. Again - I'm not arguing; I've only seen my
teeth at any length, and I'm very interested in keeping the ones I have
left, even if it means wearing an appliance at night to keep from
snapping them off, and so far, knock wood, the two dentists working on
the wreckage don't think I clench. I'll be sure to ask them to
reappraise as the restoration goes on, because I'd love to keep them,
especially once they're fixed!

--
"Did Father shoot him? I will eat Grandfather for dinner."
- Helen Keller, on learning of the death of her grandfather

email: archaicnewelpeg at gmail dot com


.

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