TODS FEATURED SPEAKER
‘SOUND’ BITES: QUICK, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR ACHIEVING HEALTHY, FUNCTIONAL OCCLUSIONS
Dr. William Lea
Session Date: Friday October 20, 2023
Session Time: 8:30 AM – 12 PM
Presenter Name: Dr. William Lea
Outline:
Avoiding, Diagnosing and Treating Occlusal Dysfunction
Learning Objectives:
- How to establish healthy, comfortable, functional occlusion on all our restorations by considering and striving for only 3 occlusal objectives.
- How to use a helpful patient questionnaire to screen out and identify parafunctional and dysfunctional patients.
- How to focus our energies on only 2 essential functions of the jaw to successfully address most occlusal and joint issues.
- How to respect the 2 “Keys” to occlusion that will dissolve the confusion associated with this area of dentistry.
- How to use a quick (3-minute), easy, low-cost, low-tech, low-overhead, reliable, 3-step diagnostic approach to reveal malocclusion and occlusal imbalances.
- How to identify the only 3 fundamental dental malocclusions.
- How to fabricate and adjust a soft, mandibular “diagnostic” splint that functions to confirm the diagnosis and acts as a screening device so that no one starts a treatment that they can’t finish.
- How to use a quick (15-30 minute), low-overhead, low-cost, superficial, non-invasive, predictive, reliable, 4-step treatment approach that reduces parafunctional activity and resolves symptoms of occlusal dysfunction. It also enables anyone to check and adjust their restorations to correct any occlusal defects on their own work to quickly establish healthy function.
- How to avoid misdiagnosing any confusing, secondary symptoms of occlusal dysfunction so that no one ends up doing incorrect, unnecessary treatments.
About The Speaker
Dr. William Lea graduated from the University of British Columbia Dental School in 1980. He has been a solo, general practitioner on Salt Spring Island for over 40 years. For most of that time, he also treated patients requiring complex orthopedic and fixed orthodontics. He has been diagnosing and treating occlusal problems, joint pain, reduced function, and general bite imbalances for well over 20 years.
He has spoken on this topic at Chicago’s Midwinter Clinic, New York’s GNYDM, Florida’s Dental Conference in Orlando, several times at Vancouver’s PDC and at several other dental meetings in Vancouver, Boston and Vancouver Island.
He is keenly aware of the well-known and highly-regarded individuals who speak on this aspect of dentistry, but has found that their procedures and beliefs have not given him and his patients the affordable, consistent, stable results that he was hoping for.
Initially, in his practice, he referred patients with TMD to Dr. David Bowler, in Sidney, BC. Dr. Bowler studied myofascial pain and dysfunction under Dr. Janet Travell. Dr. Bowler introduced to him, in fits and starts, some of his ideas, diagnostic concepts and treatrment that he had found to be very helpful in relieveing patients of their oclusal problems and establishing stable, comfortable bites.
Unfortunately, Dr. Bowler passed away before Dr. Lea could understand his complete diagnostic approach and treatment system. It took Dr. Lea several years to work out a simple, easily-applied, affordable yet still profitable and effective way to integrate what he had begun to learn from Dr. Bowler that he could now apply to his own patients suffering from occlusal problems that often led to TMD.
Dr. Lea is now very confident with the protocol that he has developed for the diagnosis and treatment of occlusal problems and for relieving patients of discomfort and reduced jaw function. He is very excited to share it with you now.
