We at Aesthetic Dentistry of Noe Valley place a lot of emphasis on the functional aspect of your dental health. As a result, we offer bite balancing to patients who exhibit the need for this service. Information from your bite is taken and carefully analyzed on a bite machine that replicates how you may be moving your lower jaw in relation to your joints, upper jaw, and opposing teeth. We work out each case on a bite machine and then transfer the result to the mouth. After this work up exercise we are able to tell how involved the case may be. The ideal position of the bite relaxes the muscles and places less strain on the joints, muscles, teeth, and rest of the masticatory system. Sometimes only selective grinding is needed so that the teeth hit together more favorably - other times if there is a lot of damage to the teeth, crowns may be needed to replenish and restore the bite. Every case will be different. Many patients can benefit from having their bite balanced. Anyone with TMJ, tightness in the jaw, patients experiencing bruxism (clenching/grinding) and anyone with damage to their teeth. Someone with a very poor bite may break their natural teeth or break dental work routinely. Bite Balancing should increase the longevity of your natural dentition and chewing system by distributing evenly the forces that are applied to the natural dentition and dental work. Everyone should have a bite work up to determine what should be done before the age of 40.