Table of Contents

Authors’ foreword.- General Introduction.- Diagnosis.- Introduction.- Symptoms Pain Location.- Nature, aggravating or relieving factors.- Resistance to drugs.- Discomforts.- Auditory problems.- Problems with swallowing and phonation.- Problems with posture and vision.- Fatigue and sleeping disorders.- Psychological mood disorders.- Prolonged unexplained fever.- Immuno-deficiency disorders.- Autonomic problems.- Problems with nutrition.- Objective signs.- Examination.- Extraoral examination.- Intraoral examination.- Palpation.- Extraoral palpation.- Intraoral palpation.- Listening.- Acute factors.- Stomatognathic parafunctions.- Pathophysiology.- Characteristics of periodontal proprioception.- Physiological receptors.- The trigeminal nerve pathways and their central projections.- The long ascending trigemino-telencephalic projection pathways.- The long ascending trigemino-cerebellar projection pathways.- The outside-TBNC trigeminal projections.- Useful physiological reminders.- The sensitivo-motor innervation of the skeletal muscle.- The rest position of the jaw.- Inhibition Reflex of the Jaw Closing Muscles Originating in the Periodontum (IRJCMOP).- Phasic activity of the stomatognathic muscles.- The brain control on muscular activities.- Other implicated nervous centres.- Pathophysiological conditions.- Stomatognathic muscular spasticity.- Oral parafunctions.- Familiar grinding.- Clenching : a misunderstood condition.- Theory of sensitization in the low neural pathways.- Theory of the “high association pathways”.- The behavioral side of clenching.- Biochemical data.- Serotonine.- Dopamine.- Substance P.- Acetylcholine.- Others.- Painful outcomes of parafunctional clenching.- Discomfort as the outcome of parafunctional clenching.- Auditory problems.- Problems with swallowing and phonation.- Problems with posture and vision.- Fatigue.- Sleeping disturbances.- Prolonged unexplained fever.- Immunodeficiency problems.- Autonomic problems.- Problems with memory.- Problems with nutrition.- The Relaxing and Moderating Treatment (RMT).- Local procedures.- Clenching self-control: the “lips-technique”.- Drug prescription.- General relaxation and psychotherapy.

About the Author

Francis Hartmann is Honorary professor at Odontology Faculty, Université de la Méditerranée Aix-Marseille, Past président of Collège National de Biologie Buccale, Marseille, France. Gérard Cucchi is Doctor in odontological sciences, hospital and university assistant.