What's Occlusion?

Basically occlusion is how your teeth come together – your "bite".

From the dentist's perspective it is a critical element to understand as there are several factors that combine to give you a good, healthy bite – one that functions well and in which teeth, jaw and muscles are not stressed beyond their limits.

Occlusal Disease, Malocclusion, or Bad Bite

"Occlusal disease", "malocclusion" or a "bad bite" is very common and can occur for a variety of reasons. Diagnosing the condition and treating it correctly are important as it can cause many problems including:

• Worn Teeth
• Cracked Tooth
• Sensitive Teeth
• Tooth nerve damage leading to abscesses
• Tooth looseness
• Tooth loss
• Gum recession
• Bone recession
• Regular Headaches
• Sore facial muscles
• TMJ Disorders

BiteFX aims to help people understand the factors that make for a good occlusion, the problems caused by occlusal disease, and how occlusal disease can be treated.

Learning About Occlusion – for Patients

Check out our Glossary of Topics Relating to Occlusion for links to videos and visual explanations. If you suffer from any of the symptoms described above or on the other pages, you might ask your dentist what he understands about occlusion and how that understanding guides his treatment of your teeth. If he uses BiteFX to explain things to you, then he clearly knows what he is talking about!

If you are looking for a dentist who has a good understanding of occlusion, visit our BiteFX Dentists' Page.

Learning About Occlusion – for Dental Professionals

There are many great teaching centers that help dentists master occlusion. We've assembled a list of the best on our Events and Training page.

For an introduction to the topic you might check out the series of webinars Forget Occlusion Confusion presented by Dr. Don Reid and produced by SmileVision. These are available on DVD and can be purchased from our Products page.