Gnathological treatment

After diagnosing and classifying our patient within the cranio-cervico-mandibular disorders, the range of therapies that can be implemented opens up.

The diagnosis can reveal several aspects:

• A disorder involving only the muscles (myositis);
• The capsule of the temporomandibular joint called TMJ (inflammatory capsulitis or retractable capsulitis or a fibrosis of the capsule);
• The ligaments of the TMJ (subluxation of the joint disc, hyperlaxation with anterior dislocation of the condyle);
• The various components of the TMJ (reducible disc dislocation, non-reducible dislocation, chronic dislocation, acute dislocation);
• The articular disc (perforations, delaminations, adhesions to the mandibular condyle or temporal bone eminence);
• The bones, i.e. the condyle of the mandible and the eminence of the temporal bone (arthritis and arthrosis);

Many of these structures at the same time;

It is clear that the treatment cannot be the same for each and every one of these aspects, and it has to be treated by a specialist.

The treatment is based on the construction and use of a splint (a transparent resin plate which “snaps” onto the teeth and which the patient can put on and take off).

Therefore, it is a reversible type of therapy that does not alter or displace the teeth, but acts on the structures mentioned above, to treat and heal them.

There are different splints (muscular relaxation splint, joint repositioning splint, joint decompression splint, splint to increase the vertical dimension before denture treatment, stabilisation splint).

The bite is delivered and then followed by a series of appointments where it is checked, modified, adjusted, etc.