For people with severely worn teeth, the problem is caused by a combination of acids in the mouth through the foods and fluids we consume, habits such as grinding our teeth at night and clenching our jaws during the day, but also, it is caused by the position of teeth in relation to each other.

Ideally, teeth are positioned in what’s called a canine guided position. This means that as we move our lower jaws from side to side, the canine teeth slide along each other, which should open up the contacts between the other teeth. When we lose this guidance, through wear, acid or trauma, it can mean that as we slide from side to side, the teeth don’t come apart anymore, and this causes the excessive wearing down of our teeth.

This problem remains largely unrecognised by most dentists because it is a very slow and gradual deterioration. Treatment of these teeth have traditionally involved expensive and destructive crowns and bridges and is difficult for many dentists to treat because as teeth wear down, they continue erupt to keep in contact with each other, which sometimes can mean there isn’t any space left for a restoration!

Thus, patients suffer a worsening of their condition and their teeth get shorter and shorter until it starts to affect their chewing. At this point though, it can be many years down the track and can be tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of treatment to correct.

The first step is a thorough assessment of the situation to determine what is causing these teeth to wear down so quickly. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of putting in two small fillings on the canine teeth to ensure that the teeth come apart on sideways jaw movements.If there is a loss of vertical space however, we will need to recreate it. And no, it doesn’t mean that we should put a crown on every tooth and if you have received this advice, you definitely should get a second opinion. This is very expensive and also very destructive! Why would you want to treatyour tooth wear problem by cutting down the tooth even further?

Through careful planning and assessment, we identify exactly what is contributing to your problem and replace the lost tooth structure with restorations that add to the tooth. We can use minimally invasive, or non-invasive strategies to combat tooth wear. If it is done correctly, the canine guidance should be restored, and the problem often disappears permanently.People who grind their teeth at night even report an end to the grinding permanently on many instances.The procedure is a minimally-invasive way to permanently restore teeth back to their normal function while at the same time, it rejuvenates the person’s appearance and costs less than what it would cost for traditional crown and bridge work.