What Most Dentists Are Not Taught
What I am about to share on this website is what I have learned to be true concerning the anatomy and physiology of the structure and neurological function of a small portion of the neuromusculoskeletal system of the human body, most of which is non-dental, therefore, is not taught in most dental schools.
It’s the stomatognathic system, which is the area of the human body located between the middle of skull and the middle of the cervical spine. Sometimes it functions well and sometimes it doesn’t and becomes damaged, defective, and dysfunctional. Most often the defects, malfunctions, and disorders of the system are multifactorial and complex, very different from what I was taught in dental school.
James E. Carlson D.D.S
Dr. Carlson is one of North America’s leading experts regarding the structural configuration and function of the components of human beings’ masticatory system as well as their dentition design (the configuration of all 28/32 teeth as an organized structural/functional unit.)
He is a past member of the American Dental Association, American Academy of Dentistry for Children, American Association of Functional Jaw Orthopedics, International Association for Orthodontics, The Holistic Dental Association, The American Academy of Craniofacial Pain and has served on the Advisory Board of the Price-Pottenger Foundation. While in clinical practice he focused his attention on treating patients who had various types of disorders that involved the structural and functional components of the stomatognathic system including the teeth, temporomandibular joints, and the oral-craniofacial bones, muscles, and somatic, proprioceptive, and cranial nerves. He taught occlusion concepts at The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies for several years. Dr. Carlson has written numerous articles and has authored several books. He has taught the concepts of orthocranial occlusion and dentition design, comprehensive patient analysis, diagnosis, and treatment planning, as well as caring for and designing new replacement teeth for edentulous patients nationally and internationally for over the past 30 years.
Comprehensive Integrative Patient Care
For those visitors, dentists, and other healthcare practitioners who have arrived at this website; what I am sharing about treating multifactorial postural, structural, neurological functional disorders of the stomatognathic system is complex and it is not for everyone, healthcare practitioners and patients alike. It’s not for provisional, palliative, band-aide, healthcare practitioners looking to provide their patients with some type of simple, quick-fix solutions for their difficult situations.
Many years ago, when I found this new, unique approach to patient care it meant I needed to change to the way I perceived the structure and neurological function of the components of the entire human body’s musculoskeletal system. It also meant a change to the methods and clinical skillsets I needed to use to examine, test, analyze, diagnose, and treat patients’ neuromusculoskeletal-dental difficulties, thus a change from providing limited, traditional, provisional, palliative dental patient care to providing definitive, integrative, interdisciplinary comprehensive patient care.
I also found I had to change to the way I perceived the condition of patients’ problems, from one of them having simple difficulties that only involved the structure of their teeth and associated components of the oral cavity to them having various types of non-dental complex, multifactorial disorders that involved the structure and postural alignment, arrangement, position, and neurological function of all the components of their stomatognathic system.
In time, it turned out to be comprehensive patient care; an organized, systematic method of analysis and diagnosis that is used to determine the cause, thus find the source of detrimental, harmful ill-effects of the various types of disorders of patients’ stomatognathic system. It also included the methods, systems, and clinical procedures that are used to effectively treat them as well. However, to be effective and successful, I found out it required integrative, interdisciplinary patient care with other healthcare practitioners. That meant stepping outside of the box of what was generally practiced by dentists in America and Canada during that time.
This information for those healthcare practitioners who want to find the root cause, thus the source their patients’ stomatognathic system structural, neurological functional problems so they can learn to confidently, effectively, and successfully treat them.
It’s for those healthcare practitioners who want to learn more about the root causes, thus the source their patients’ persistent head, neck, face, jaw dysfunction/pain so they can learn to confidently, effectively, and successfully treat them.
Why
Adages: “defective, damaged oral-facial-cranial-mandibular-cervical structures always produce defective, damaged neurological function is true,” and so is “clinicians can never find the answer to treating harmful ill-effects when they don’t know what caused them; when they try, they will fail.”
Therefore, healthcare practitioners need to know the source of the harmful, detrimental ill-effects of patients’ persistent problems such as; mal-formed, mal-aligned maxillae and mandibles, bruxism, headaches, chewing and swallowing dysfunction, xerostomia (dry mouth), airway and tongue disorders such as mouth breathing, dysfunctional breathing patterns, snoring, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), anterior and lateral tongue thrusting and lisping, temporomandibular joint dysfunction-pain, cervical spinal joint dysfunction-pain, oral-craniofacial-cervical myofascial neuromuscular dysfunction-pain, dental occlusal trauma-pain, and chronic traumatic brain-brainstem, cranial nerve, and cranial dura mater injuries and dysfunction, and dysfunction of the sacral occipital/cranial-dural system.
What to Do About It
Begin by examining, testing, and analyzing the system’s musculoskeletal structure, posture, and neurological function, and then determining the existing condition and degree of normality of each. Part of the process is the clinical examination as well as biometric testing of the oral-craniofacial-cervical muscles, temporomandibular joints, and movements of the mandible, plus determining the alignment, position, structure, configuration of the oral-facial-cranial, mandibular-cervical bones, and teeth.
Because of the complex nature of the structure of the stomatognathic system, cervical spine, and neurocranium, to accurately determine the degree of normality of the alignment, position, structure, and configuration of the bones, joints, and teeth requires comprehensive cephalometric analysis using CBCT scans to be effective and successful.
Seminars
Live via ZOOM, limited attendance to allow participants to ask questions, which are interactive.
They are for dentists and other healthcare practitioners who want to learn what is normal about the structure and neurological function of the stomatognathic system and then how to find the source of structurally defective, functionally damaged components when they become abnormal, as well as the methods, systems, and clinical procedures used so they can confidently and successfully treat them.
Seminars Include New Insights Into:
Question & Answer Sessions
(free, no charge)
Live via ZOOM, Thursday evenings 7:00 to 9:00 P.M. CST
It’s for dentists, other healthcare practitioners, and visitors who want to learn more about the structure of the oral-facial-cranial-cervical bones, muscles, joints, and nerves that affect body posture, position, alignment, balance, and movements of the head, neck, and mandible, and the function of the temporomandibular joints, cervical spine joints, vision, speaking, respiration, nasal-breathing, sleeping, chewing, tasting, swallowing. And learn how successfully “fix” these structures and functions when they are “broken.”
Books
Dr. Carlson is the author of innovative, data driven books on providing clinical dentistry based on the physical principles of posture biomechanics and biodynamics and neural proprioceptive function as applied to the structure and function of the components of the stomatognathic system.
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