I have had massive problems after seeing two dentists. Each time, rather than helping me they’ve made the situation worse. I am now to the point where I am not sure who to trust and how to fix this. I grind my teeth. They ended up ground down to nubs so my dentist placed a crown on every tooth. That is when things started going downhill. He didn’t do it right and my jaw ended up crooked and slanted, with one side higher than the other. I started having serious pain every day and massive headaches. I went to see another dentist and he told me I’d developed TMJ Disorder. He gave me an orthotic device to wear and ended up opening my bite up too much. He didn’t address the slant in my jaw and now my crowns are ground down the way my teeth were. Is there any hope to getting this fixed? Someone told me to see a prosthodontist, but I heard they don’t know how to make their crowns pretty. Is it too much to ask to have a pain-free functioning smile that also looks great?
Penelope
Dear Penelope,
You certainly haven’t had the best dentists in this situation. You’d think they would at least not make it worse. As you can tell, not all dentists invest in the post-doctoral training necessary to handle advanced classes such as yours. When all your teeth are ground down to nubs, the solution is to crown them, a procedure known as a full-mouth reconstruction. While he knew what procedure to do, he obviously didn’t have the expertise to do it.
You are now dealing with serious TMJ Disorder and will need a dentist who knows how to reconstruct your bite to its proper position. While there isn’t a recognized specialty in TMJ, there are some post-doctoral institutions who have great training programs in learning to skillfully diagnose and treat this problem.
I would look for a dentist who has invested in training with one or more of the following:
- The Dawson Academy
- The Spear Institute
- The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies
- The Kois Center
Dr. Hadgis not only has training from the Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies, but he is also now a Fellow, which requires extra training and skill. This is the type of advanced TMJ dentist you need to help you with your full mouth reconstruction.
Getting a Functional AND Beautiful Smile
You don’t need to choose between form and function. Though a tall order, it is possible to find a dentist with TMJ and cosmetic dentistry training. My suggestion would be to look for an AACD accredited dentist then look to see what their training is in reconstructive dentistry.
This blog is brought to you by Grosse Pointe Woods Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Theodore Hadgis.