Volume 26 - Issue 2

Dr. Peter E. (Pete) Dawson is well-known as a master dentist and icon of the dental profession. His teaching, writing, and personal influence have changed the lives of thousands of dentists worldwide, over a career that spans 50 plus years. Beneath the extraordinary reputation lives a person who is driven by an extraordinary passion for life.
Pete Dawson was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, the third child of seven in his family. His father Doug ...

A group of dental alumni, all well-established in their respective disciplines, many with practices limited to the diagnosis and treatment of temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD) and orofacial pain, recently got together at an alumni meeting at one of the nations leading colleges of dentistry. The conversation, at first, revolved around the endless stress of practice and life itself, but soon  focused on one of their dental school teachers, who had first introduced them to a term ...

An anatomical study of the fissures related to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) was performed in 40 dry human skulls. The length of the squamotympanic fissure (X), as well as those of the petrotympanic fissure (Y) and the (descending part of) the petrosquamous fissure (Z), into which the first of them (as a rule) branches, was measured. The distances between the point of this bifurcation and the deepest point of the glenoid fossa (A), the articular ...

Trigger point injections with different solutions have been studied mainly with regard to the management of myofascial pain (MFP) patient management. However, few studies have analyzed their effect in a chronic headache population with associated MFP. The purpose of this study was to assess if trigger point injections using lidocaine associated with corticoid would be better than lidocaine alone, as in comparison with dry-needling in for the management of local pain and associated headache management ...

The objective of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that alteration of the occlusions of patients suffering from temporomandibular disorders (TMD) to one that is neuromuscularly, rather than anatomically based, would result in reduction or resolution of symptoms that characterize the TMD condition. This hypothesis was proven correct in the present study, where 313 patients with TMD symptoms were examined for neuromuscular dysfunction, using several electronic instruments before and after treatment intervention. Such instrumentation ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of otologic symptoms and their relationship to orofacial signs and symptoms of temporomandibular disorder (TMD), and the effect of orofacial myofunctional therapy. The study was conducted on eight asymptomatic subjects (Group C) and 20 subjects with articular TMD, randomly distributed over two groups: one treated using orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT Group) and a control group with TMD (Group CTMD). Patient selection was based upon the ...

The present investigation is a preliminary double-blind, controlled placebo, randomized clinical trial with a six month follow-up period. The study aimed to assess the efficacy of type A botulinum toxin (Botox, Allergan, Inc. Irvine, CA) to treat myofascial pain symptoms and to reduce muscle hyperactivity in bruxers. Twenty patients (ten males, ten females; age range 25-45) with a clinical diagnosis of bruxism and myofascial pain of the masticatory muscles were enrolled in a double-blind, controlled ...

Numerous studies suggest that temporomandibular disorders may be associated with forward head posture. The current study presents a need for an intervention that will effectively facilitate an ideal postural alignment of the head. The Occivator (Posteocentric Systems, Mastic Beach, NY) is an intervention speculated to improve forward head posture (FHP). However there has not been a randomized study to correlate use of the Occivator with improvement of FHP. The purpose of this study was to ...

Apoptosis is a potential contributor to anterior disk displacement (ADD) in temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of key protein regulators involved in apoptosis in the chondrocytes of mandibular condyles with induced ADD in experimental animals. ADD was surgically induced in the left temporomandibular joint (TMJ) of 15 rabbits without opening their bursas. A sham operation was performed on the right TMJ without displacing the disk forward ...

Normalization of mandibular function in children is important for normal orofacial development because their function is not still matured. This case report examined jaw movement during chewing in a young patient with unilateral scissors-bite. He could hardly chew on the affected side, preferring to chew only on the unaffected side, and his minimum opening position was initially unstable, i.e., he had two positions before active treatment. Retention did not stabilize his minimal opening position ...