3-D Orthorcranial™ Cephalometric Analysis: Half-Day

Regarding Complex Disorders of the Structural Components of the Head, Neck, and Face

Outside of trauma to the head, neck, and face, under normal conditions most people aren’t born with dental and/or oral-craniofacial-cervical skeletal, joint, muscular, postural, neurological functional disorders. They develop them from infancy to adulthood whereby they adversely affect the structure and neurological behavior of all the components of the stomatognathic system as well as the craniosacral dural respiratory mechanism. Some people have complex conditions of the system that manifest as malocclusion, chewing, and swallowing dysfunction, bruxism, headaches, airway and tongue disorders such as abnormal breathing patterns, snoring, and obstructive sleep apnea, tongue thrusting and lisping, temporomandibular joint and oral-craniofacial-cervical neuromuscular dysfunction and pain, occlusal trauma, and chronic traumatic brain and cranial nerve injuries to name a few.

To effectively and successfully treat people who have these types of complex disorders requires comprehensive oral-craniofacial patient care which includes three-dimensional radiographic analysis of the size, shape, configuration, alignment, and position of the oral-facial cranial bones, mandible, cervical vertebrae, oral nasal pharyngeal cavity, and teeth. This type of care is in lieu of traditional basic dental care which only provides analysis and treatment of the teeth, periodontal tissues, and associated structures of the oral cavity.

The adages – function follows form, form affects function, and force affects structure and function are all true. Therefore, dysfunction of structure of the human body follows malformation, deformation, distortion, defects, and malalignment of its form, configuration, and structure which includes the form, structural alignment, and function of the stomatognathic system and the occluding muscular contraction forces on them. Thus, the form and alignment of its structural components can affect the function of the brain, brain stem, cranial nerves, cranial dura mater, cerebral spinal fluid and cranial blood flow, cranial respiratory motion, and segments of the central nervous system, the structure of the orbital bones, vision, alignment of the cervical spine vertebrae, movement and positions of the tongue, volume of the patent airway, the sacral occipital/cranial system, and the body’s neuromusculoskeletal system.

More specifically for patients seeking care from dentists; it’s the function of the components of the oral-craniofacial-cervical neuromusculoskeletal system, temporomandibular joints, and all the teeth. Because of the complex nature of these components, to determine the normality of the nature of the condition of the configuration, structural alignment, and position of the bones, joints, and teeth requires a different, more comprehensive method of cephalometric analysis to effectively and successfully make that possible. Using three-dimensional computerized tomography (CB/CT scans) and sophisticated analytical software this method includes a comprehensive analysis that can be used to measure the size, shape, alignment, and position of the skeletal structures, joints, and teeth of the system. Thus, three-dimensional orthocranial™ cephalometric analysis was developed to accomplish the task.
Participants will learn the: Why it is important to know the condition of the structure of head, neck, and teeth. What skeletal structures are analyzed, what to look for, and what the analysis will determine. The benefits for clinicians and patients.