If, after a dental crown is cemented in the mouth, the crown makes contact with the other teeth even by a millimeter before the other teeth when the patient closes their jaw, this is called “occlusal height.” This situation should never be postponed with the thought, “If I make early contact, I’ll get used to it over time.” Because during chewing, all the jaw force is placed solely on that single, high tooth. This leads to acute trauma (periodontitis) in the periodontal fibers around the supporting tooth and severe chewing pain; the patient may become unable to touch the tooth. In the long term, this uncontrolled load is reflected in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), causing clicking sounds, locking, and chronic migraine-like headaches. The dentist should completely eliminate this height during the procedure using articulation papers.
