Importance of Occlusion in Dental Medicine
About the webinar 
Dentistchannel.online hosted webinar on ‘Occlusion in Dental Medicine’ by Prof. Dr. Prafulla Thumati on 13th April, 2020. Dr. Prafulla has vast experience in TMD & Orofacial Pain management and has lectured in several national & international conferences. The current webinar was very informative and had participants from across the country.

Importance of Occlusion
The clinical longevity of clinical work is dependent on so many factors and all these ultimately depend on the occlusal stability. The knowledge of occlusal principles enhances diagnosis of malocclusion in the development of a treatment plan. Failure to understand sound occlusal principles leads to various treatment modalities and unnecessary overtreatment. Early diagnosis of signs of occlusal disease helps in intercepting the damage. Not respecting the dento-facial system may result in failure of restoration, prosthesis, or periodontal treatment failures, along with relapse of orthodontic and orthognathic surgeries.

Analysis of Occlusion
Dr. Prafulla, explained the application of various tools for analysis of occlusion which can potentially lead to the diagnosis and treatment of underlying occlusal problem. Following are the main tools used for analysis of occlusion in dental medicine.

T-Scan III
The T-Scan III System is a bite analysis system that measures the efficiency of how teeth come together and separate to protect natural teeth, restored teeth, implants, and muscles. This unique diagnostic system instantly displays interferences for evaluation and treatment of occlusion. A patient simply bites down on a thin sensor and the software displays the timing of contacts and levels of force in a dynamic movie. It will show the patient’s bite from beginning to end and all that is happening in between. T-Scan, can help improve clinical results and minimize destructive occlusal forces that are not seen with traditional occlusal indicators alone. The T-Scan system is a great tool to ensure you are loading implants after natural dentition, balancing splits, orthodontics, and locating painful teeth.

JVA – Joint Vibration Analysis
In recent years, joint vibration analysis ( JVA) has been developed to record and analyze TMJ vibrations that are produced by joint tissues during opening and closing movements, visualize the wave shapes, analyze the eventual vibrations in the contralateral condyle, and calculate the frequency, as well as the amplitude of the vibration. JVA is a noninvasive detection technique and is of great value in the auxiliary diagnosis of TMD, because it provides more essential information of the articular noise than other methods do.

EMG- Electromyography for recording muscle activity
Occlusal relationship and forces exerted by the orofacial musculature are in a state of dynamic equilibrium. Any change in occlusion has a definite influence over muscle contraction, and may cause various disturbances of different parts of stomatognathic system including development of TMJ dysfunction syndrome in long run. Electromyography (EMG) is the test that is used to register the electrical potential of skeletal muscles. The analysis of the EMG trace enables the identification of muscle behaviors in different situations, such as during rest, mastication, swallowing and during maximum voluntary isometric contraction, among others. Data analysis is conducted through the study of the relationship between the frequency and intensity of the registered electric activity, and may thus determine muscle behavior.

Disocclusion time reduction therapy
Disocclusion time reduction (DTR) is an objective treatment protocol using T-Scan III (digital analysis of occlusion) and electromyography for treating occlusally activated orofacial pains. A measurement-driven, computer-guided occlusal adjustment procedure known as immediate complete anterior guidance development (ICAGD) has repeatedly shown to successfully treat myofascial pain symptoms without requiring the treated patient to wear a splint or deprogrammer.

Final note

Overall, this webinar was a good experience which provided clear insights on importance of occlusion in dental medicine and various digital analysis systems and their application in clinical practice. It is important for a dental practitioner to understand the concept of occlusion and incorporate in one’s practice which can benefit the patient to a greater extent.

You can now watch the entire Webinar on YouTube