There are surprising number of people, whether they’re aware of it or not, who have at least some problems resulting from malocclusion, or a bad bite. Bite problems can range from minor ones involving only an improperly placed filling (easily corrected), to those caused by lost teeth, to genetic ones ( over crowding and jaw misalignment) involving most or all of y our teeth.
If you have difficulty opening your jaw fully this could be an indication of a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. This disorder, marked by pain and discomfort in the jaw joint, affects millions of people. It’s most often caused by prolonged tooth clenching or grinding; a bad bite; injury to the joint, ligaments of the jaw joint. it could also be caused by a wisdom tooth impaction or extraction.
It is very important to verify any suspicions you have about a bite or TMJ problem with your dentist. They not only can cause nutritional problems ( by forcing you to change to a softer, less natural diet) but may also lead to severe bone loss. If the problem is caught early enough it can easily be corrected, but if you let it go the problem could become very serious, and at that point the average dentist may not be able to offer you a simple and inexpensive solution. You could thus end up paying an unnecessary, heavy price for delaying its treatment.