What is a good “bite”?
Evaluation of your bite must really be done by a dentist trained in occlusion. However a few concepts apply that you may be able to check. Firstly, when you slide your jaw to one side with your teeth contacting, only teeth on that side should contact. Contacts on the opposite side (called Balancing Contacts) will cause patients to grind their teeth and often this grinding will occur during sleep (called Bruxing). This causes harmful stresses on the teeth that result in bone loss on the side of the teeth as well as recession., Secondly, when you slide your jaw to one side with your teeth contacting, the teeth on that side should gradually only contact on anterior teeth. The brain has protective mechanisms to protect your teeth (if you have a good bite) and will prevent excessive/harmful forces on teeth. Take this test, hold your hand over your massater muscle, the big muscle of your face, over the back corner of you jaw Clench on your back teeth and feel the power developed in this musc
