It’s safe to say that a large majority of the people who walk into dental offices may appear to have normal jaws and teeth, but that may not be the case. There are occasions when some people have gone to their dentist seeking help to remedy problems within their chewing mechanism and didn’t get it. Their teeth and masticatory system may have looked all right but may not have been functioning very well. Chewing is performed by the masticatory system, sometimes referred to as the stomatognathic system, which simply means the mouth and jaws. What might have happened was they couldn’t find help because the dentists didn’t know how the condition of their stomatognathic system could affect the condition of their teeth and vice versa. However, we can’t blame dentists because of what they don’t know or were not taught in dental school.

I had an excellent dental education. My professors and clinical instructors taught me all about teeth – what teeth were made of and what they looked like. I learned how to analyze and diagnose them, repair them when they were decayed or broken, replace them when they were missing, and how to remove them when they become a big problem. My dental school training also helped define my professional purpose, which was to provide basic dental care; to repair, replace, and remove teeth and treat the periodontal tissues and associated structures of the oral cavity. However, I found out there is a lot more to clinical dentistry than what is taught in dental school. During my career as a clinical dentist and international dental educator I came to realize that there could be more to practicing clinical dentistry than just providing basic dental care. There is the bigger picture that includes caring for patients who have adverse complex conditions involving components of their stomatognathic system. It took me quite a few years to learn why patients were having problems and how to effectively care for those who had complex conditions. And I had to acquire the necessary knowledge and clinical skillsets from a number of health care practitioners from in and outside of the field of dentistry.

The book concerns some of what I learned about the structure and physiologic function of the stomatognathic system in addition to what I was taught about providing basic dental care. “So, what about the condition of the stomatognathic system that’s so important? What about it is it that dentists need to know that’s beyond providing traditional basic dental care? Doesn’t every dentist know about the structure and function of the stomatognathic system and how to treat it when it is malformed, mal-aligned, or dysfunctional? Aren’t dental students taught about this in dental school? If not, why not?”

I don’t have answers to all of those questions, but some of the answers might be found in the book. However, you should find the answer to the question, ‘What about the condition of the structure and function of the stomatognathic system that’s so important?’ What I do know and have discovered is there are many dental patients who have disorders that involve a combination of their craniofacial bones, motor and sensory nerves, and muscles, temporomandibular joints, cervical spine, and teeth that dentists or other healthcare practitioners haven’t been able to resolve. In many cases the situation was that the patients’ teeth and craniofacial neuromusculoskeletal structures didn’t fit and function together even after they had all their teeth realigned, replaced, reconstructed, or restored.

What I have written concerns why some people have disorders involving their stomatognathic system who sought treatment and didn’t get the problem resolved. My hope is that the knowledge and information found in the book will be of interest to dentists, other members of the dental profession, other healthcare practitioners, and the general public, particularly those who suffer from or know of someone who suffers from complex conditions, oral-craniofacial design disorders, and dentition design disorders. Now, I want to share some of what I’ve learned with you. – Dr. Carlson

The book is 110 pages long, contains numerous illustrations, and is divided into five sections with a bibliography of 72 references.

·       Comprehensive Patient Care

·       Fundamentals

·       Structure of the Stomatognathic System

Craniofacial Bones, Craniofacial Neuromuscular System, Temporomandibular Joints, “The Frame”, The Dentition

·       Disorders of the Stomatognathic System

·       Providing Comprehensive Patient Care