Occlusion is how your teeth come together when you close your jaw. Your occlusion is influenced by three primary components: (1) teeth, (2) nerves and muscles, and (3) bones. Another factor, which can affect the way your teeth come together, is your posture.
Take note of the fact that when you tilt your head back and bite, your teeth will hit differently than when you tilt your head forward. The same rule applies when you are lying down on your side. Your lower jaw will shift to one side. We now need to define ideal occlusion or bite. I'm going to attempt to explain this by describing some functional terms.
Centric Occlusion :
Centric Occlusion
define the habitual position of closure. In other words, the position your teeth are in when you repeatedly bite. In an ideal centric occlusion all the teeth are in proper contact.
Now let's try and explain how an individual with an ideal bite functions. Starting at centric occlusion and keeping the teeth in
contact as much as possible, we slide the lower jaw to one side. In an ideal occlusion, when the lower jaw is shifted to one side,
the posterior teeth should not touch.
What happens is that the lower canine or eye tooth is riding up on the upper canine. This is called Canine Guidance or canine protected occlusion.
Canine protected occlusion is an important concept, especially for people who have excessive wear on their teeth, erosion of
their roots, gum recession, and suffer from TMJ (temporomandibular dysfunction).
Anterior Guidance :
Now let's try and explain how an individual with an ideal bite functions. Starting at
centric occlusion and keeping the teeth in contact as much as possible, we slide the
lower jaw to one side. In an ideal occlusion, when the lower jaw is shifted to one side,the posterior teeth should not touch.
What happens is that the lower canine or eye tooth is riding up on the upper canine.
This is called Canine Guidance or canine protected occlusion.
Canine protected occlusion is an important concept, especially for people who have
excessive wear on their teeth, erosion of their roots, gum recession, and suffer from
TMJ (temporomandibular dysfunction).
Vertical Dimension :
Vertical Dimension is another factor to consider. If you can picture a person without teeth, their face would be collapsed. This means that they have a loss of vertical dimension.
You can have a decreased vertical dimension by loss of teeth or by excessive wear of the posterior teeth. Some individuals have a very steep overbite, which can be
helped by opening the vertical dimension. Often, individuals with a decreased vertical dimension suffer from TMJ. Vertical dimension can be increased by building up the height of the posterior teeth.
