The muscles that control your jaw are powerful yet precise. They can exert enough force to chew a crusty roll or a thick steak, yet can be gentle enough to hold your teeth together when you bite a piece of thread.

Muscles that are not relaxed and comfortable however, can cause damage to the teeth, joints, or soft tissue in your mouth. This can result in a host of problems—from headaches and pains in the neck, back, and shoulders to ringing in the ears, aching or clicking jaw joints, gum recession, and tooth clenching or grinding.

Metropolitan Dental offers a painless solution to these and other related problems through neuromuscular dentistry—a unique practice that focuses on finding the ideal position for your jaw muscles, where they can rest without any strain or tension.

Over the past several years, Dr. Walters has attended numerous continuing education programs at the Las Vegas Institute—the only school of its kind in North America that teaches neuromuscular dentistry. This practice differs from traditional dentistry in that it places emphasis on the activity of the muscles that move the jaw.

Like a builder erecting a new home, we want to ensure that your teeth and dental work have the strongest foundation possible. To find the most relaxed position for your jaw, we perform a process called “tensing,” which sends a mild electrical impulse to the muscles—stimulating blood flow and relaxing them completely.

This enables us to establish your most comfortable biting position—which we can also track using our advanced K7 muscle evaluation system. This computerized diagnostic equipment allows us not only to treat your symptoms but also to help improve or even cure your problem.

We use this information to create a custom orthotic that you wear until your bite stabilizes and your symptoms disappear. For many patients, this can happen in as little as a few months. At that point, patients can decide whether to proceed with further treatment to permanently correct the underlying problem.

Give us a call to set up a consultation with Dr. Walters, and he’ll explain further how we can give you something to really smile about.