One of the main problems we see when we are restoring an anterior tooth that's just recently chipped is that we always have to adjust occlusion. Whenever you see a chipped tooth you have to ask yourself why. Why is that chip there?
Occlusal equilibration is a treatment modality that we can use to increase patient satisfaction and comfort. Prior to my training and education at The Dawson Academy, equilibration was the least understood and therefore the most underutilized procedure of all the things that I did.
We always start with a healthy joint, making sure that it's seated properly, in Centric Relation, and then we want all the teeth to come together with equal pressure, and then when the jaw moves at all, just the front teeth touch.
Equilibration is one of the most fun and valuable procedures I can do in my office for my patients. I tell my staff all the time that if you want to have me as happy as I can be, fill the day with equilibrations. But finalizing an equilibration is also very crucial.
It can take a little bit of time to do. But most of the time, I will set aside about an hour to hour and a half for my equilibration, and I follow that up about 2 weeks later with a 1/2 hour appointment and then another 2 weeks later, if necessary, for about a 15 to 20 minute appointment.
This is very important for a number of reasons. It is something we should look at in our new patient examinations and is something that we have to check and make sure that is not present when we are finishing occlusal equilibration.
Some of you already have the T-Scan in your practice from Tekscan. It's a computerized bite sensor that you can use in initial exams to show patients some of their malocclusion. And one of my favorite uses in our practice is to use it as part of our equilibration.
Following proper diagnosis and treatment planning, occlusal equilibration can provide selected patients with the most conservative, predictable and safest treatment possible.
Occlusal equilibration can often help avoid the need for more complex treatments. Dentists who have developed proficiency in equilibration universally agree it is one of the most practical skills they use routinely in practice.
Equilibration or reshaping of teeth is one of the procedures taught at the Dawson Academy. The equilibration process begins with step 7 in the 10 Step 3D Treatment planning Checklist (Provide Equal Intensity Stops). The goal of equilibration is to reshape both posterior and anterior teeth until equal intensity contacts are achieved in centric relation. Like all other procedures, the dental assistant’s (DA) role is vital to the success of the equilibration process.
Lucia jigs, NTI’s, Cranham deprogrammers, and Dawson B-Splints all fall into the broad category of temporomandibular joint disorder diagnosis appliances. There are specific reasons as to why you may want to use one type over another when diagnosing a possible TMJ problem, but at their core they all achieve the same goal, getting centric relation by eliminating muscle hyperactivity.
In the practice of complete dentistry the dentist is committed to an examination, diagnosis, and treatment planning process and has developed the skill of recognizing the signs of instability in a patient’s masticatory system.
It is our responsibility to offer the patient the most conservative treatment method to achieve the desired end result- a stable, comfortable, healthy dentition and supporting structures that matches their esthetic desires. The most critical skill to be developed in evaluating a patient’s occlusion is locating and verifying centric relation. If the examination reveals stable healthy TMJ’s and load testing is negative, Centric Relation serves as the starting point to determine the amount of discrepancy between CR and MIP.
