Diagnosis & Treatment

Dr. Delessert will consider all of the information gathered by taking your history and doing a physical examination of your teeth, head and neck. In addition, he will be looking at your body posture and existing bite. Certainly not every headache is of muscular origin and proper diagnosis is essential. When indicated, he may conduct a series of tests using non-invasive equipments. Data from these tests will indicate whether your bite or muscle tension is a major contributing factor to your problem. 

An orthosis is a custom-made clear appliance fabricated of acrylic that can be worn over or fixed to the teeth to maintain the neuromuscularly derived bite position. At this point, nothing is done to permanently alter your teeth or your bite. You typically wear this orthotic appliance for a prescribed period of time to verify that this new jaw position solves or reduces the problem. If it does, it has proven that the imperfect bite was the cause of the problem and you may elect to go on and have your natural teeth treated to permanently maintain that new bite position.