Chris-

I have experienced the irreversible procedure referred to as a 'bite
adjustment' or 'full mouth equilibration'.  

A procedure called 'bimanual manipulation' was used by the dentist to rotate
and  torque my jawbone into what the dentist determined was a Centric
Relation Position. This position, was a manually manipulated new jaw joint
position, created by the treating dentist, and had nothing to do with the
existing position and relationship of my teeth. As a patient, I can only
communicate to anyone reading this- I wish I had never had this done, that I
had not trusted the dentist, and that I had gotten a second opinion. or a
third or a fourth!!!!

As for reality checks-  my dentist told me it was a 'bite adjustment'-  can I
ever be adjusted back? No. It is a permanent, irreversible procedure, and
change, to the position of the jaw joint.. You can adjust your car radio, you
can adjust the height of your chair, you cannot 'adjust' your teeth-or jaw
joint position, once changed,  it is permanent!  You cannot go back to that
same exact position-

Because of the procedure, I have a new jaw joint position. My dentist told me
I needed a bite adjustment because my 'bite' was off, and was the cause of my
only complaint and symptom- " wanting to rip out tooth #19'  

My dentist did not tell me that he planned to create a new joint position,
using bimanual manipulation-  (or that bimanual manipulation is the position
of the joint, independent of the teeth)  I have read in multiple places that
the dentists who 'teach' , 'use', and 'believe" in this technique- now refer
to it as 'bimanual guidance'  the explained reason for the new term is that
it is " a softer term to describe the process'  does it change the process-NO!
It is still the process of the dentists grabbing the patient by the chin in a
suppine position and rotating a person's  jawbone/mandible, upward, and back,
sing light torque, around an 'imaginary axis of rotation' to 'seat the
condyles' and 'place/record' the patient in 'Centric Relation'.

Without going into great detail, I am sharing that I am a patient, I
experienced this, and I did not have insurance- I WISH I HAD, because it
might well have prevented me from having the 'bite adjustment' and I might
have received an accurate diagnosis for why I 'wanted to rip out tooth #19'.
BEFORE having the 'bite adjustment' 'equilibration' or what the procedure
truly is- a man made intentionally induced, permanent change, to the position
of the jaw joint. Imagine if I had been told that- 'I plan to change the
position, geometry, function and neuromuscular dynamics of your jaw, and the
position has nothing to do with your teeth'

1 week after having a  'bite adjustment' and what was recorded by the
dentists as a 'full mouth equilibration', I had to go to the ER because of
new, week long , unremitting, jaw joint pain, muslcle spasms, and an
inability to open and close my mouth properly, a deviating jaw to one side-
all of which presented only after the procedure.

13 days after seeing the dentist who permanetly, created a new jaw joint
position using bimanual manipulation, and 3 days after going to the ER
because of  jaw joint pain, I was diagnosed that the reason I complained of
'wanting to rip out tooth #19' was because tooth #19 was infected.

After #19 was treated, all of my original symptoms and complaints of
'wanting to rip out #19' went completely away. Unfortunately,  my new
symptoms created by the new jaw joint position only got worse.  

I wish I had gotten a second opinion.

CB