Understanding Posturo-Occlusal Interrelationships by Combining Digital Occlusal and Posture Diagnostic Technologies

Abstract

The nature of the interrelationship between whole body posture and the quality of the dental occlusion has not yet to date been clearly documented within the dental or posture literature, as the findings of published studies within both fields have been scarce and inconclusive. The combined use of digital diagnostic occlusal and postural assessment technologies has not been widely employed in these research projects, which has mired both fields' ability to study, to understand, and to clearly ascertain how posture and dental occlusion affect each other physiologically. As such, the specific aims of this chapter are to outline how posture and dental occlusion interrelate through the stomatognathic system's afferent neural inputs into the central nervous system (CNS), which communicate important occlusal contact force distribution information, and equally as important, mandibular spatial positional information within the posture and balance regions of the brain. The concept that the dental occlusion is a capteur for posture (which in English means, a sensor of posture health), is further explored with the inclusion of three differing clinical posturo-occlusal cases, diagnosed and treated with the combined use of the T-Scan 9 computerized occlusal analysis technology, the MatScan/MobileMat foot pressure mapping technology, and the Footmat Research software version 7.10. These presented clinical cases illustrate that improved right-to-left occlusal contact force balance, and improved center of force location within the dental arches, improve a number of measurable sway parameters. Together, the implementation of the T-Scan and the MatScan exquisitely demonstrate to the clinician the significance of the physiologic interrelationship between body posture and the dental occlusion. The presented cases emphasize there exists a whole-body concept that depends upon a variety of differing systems, whereby changes in the dental occlusion produce a phenomenon of bio-functional neuro-reprogramming for the stomatognathic system and the whole body.