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Severe Anterior Wear with Posterior Bite Collapse
Diagnosis
Patient #6 was recently retired, and wanted to restore his teeth. He had lost posterior teeth and the lack of support in the back made it so he had to eat on his front teeth. His bone support was good and his gums were healthy.
Treatment
Before we started we built him an occlusal guard that opened him back to the position he was before he wore his teeth down. We had to make sure his muscles and his TMJ would tolerate the new position. He did not have any discomfort with the new position; he actually felt better in his TMJ and muscles. We then restored him with porcelain to metal crowns. We used all porcelain margins (margins without metal) on the front crowns. The left lateral incisor could not be saved and was extracted. The one you see is a false tooth and what dentists call a pontic. He had no back tooth for a bridge on the left side and didn't want implants so we built him a precision partial.
Future Treatment
He was very hard on his natural teeth so to protect the crowns at night we made him a night guard. This case is over 12 years old.
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