The Dawson Academy Blog

The correct sequence to begin a full mouth rehab is to begin with the anterior teeth first, particularly the lower anterior teeth. The question is, what would happen if one restored the posterior teeth first as many of us were counseled to do in dental school under the guise that if we did the anteriors first, many patients would not return to finish the posteriors. This is not only short sighted, but wrong.

Hi, everybody. My name's Dr. Leonard Hess. I'm one of the senior faculty members here at the Dawson Academy, and I'd like to spend a few minutes talking with you about where occlusal splints work into a treatment plan when we're talking about doing larger or more complicated treatment plans. Let's really take a moment and break our splints down into two predominant types of appliances.

Educating patients on dental conditions can be very challenging for many dentists. A complete dentist has even more challenges, especially when it comes to explaining joint conditions with their patients. The complete dentist starts the examination by examining the joint first. Based on what we know, there are four categories or phases of joints that we need to discuss: the green joint, there are two in the yellow-joint category, and the red joint. Talking to your patients about each of these categories is very important, because if they understand the condition, they can understand the recommended treatment is necessary. We start with the green joint.

When we talk about digital dentistry, we are really talking about replacing different aspects of the process from the physical world to computer-coded counterparts. It can be everything from capturing of data with intraoral scans, to the software design process, and then fabrication of the splints using some automated manufacturing device. In my office, I’ve liked the digital capture part of the process for a while, but now, digital design and fabrication is exciting too.

The misconceptions about verifying and and using centric relation (CR) are unfortunately all too common for new and even experienced dentists. The myths that are often associated with CR, ultimately prevent patients from receiving optimal care.

What things do we look at in the initial exam to determine TMJ health and maybe what do we look at periodically to also assess joint health?

I think the beauty of this whole process is that the complete examination (taught by The Dawson Academy) and the way it is laid out gives us the ability to thoroughly examine our patients and to determine a couple of things.

Millions of people suffer from headaches. It has been estimated that over 50% of them are actually of dental origin. We know from Williams and Lundquist EMG studies, as well as Mansour and Reynik's work that posterior interferences increase bite forces dramatically and also increase muscle activity of the masseters and the temporalis.

Hi, everybody. My name is Dr. Leonard Hess. I am one of the senior faculty members here at the Dawson Academy, and I would like to take a few minutes to discuss with you when to use an NTI appliance and when not to.

Why do we ask for the patient’s TMJ history as a part of our complete exam? Particularly, why do we ask a history of open or closed lock?

The question comes up, what does airway have to do with TMD or what does TMD have to with airway problems? And the answer is sometimes there's very little overlap, sometimes there's quite a bit of overlap, and sometimes there's total overlap.