A term used to describe patients whom exhibit the strong belief that their dental occlusion is abnormal. Originally described in 1976 by Marbach, it is also currently known as Occlusal Dysesthesia, Occlusal Hyperawareness , and Occlusal Discomfort Syndrome . Current opinion asserts PB is a hypochondriacal delusion, where these patients believe their dental occlusion is abnormal. A key indicator is a dental history of seeking help from multiple dentists over a perceived occlusal concern, despite there being no physical evidence found to support the patient’s complaint. And, this ‘abnormal condition’ must exist in the absence of pain.
Published in Chapter:
Complex Medical Diagnoses With an Underlying Dental Etiology: Case Reviews
Ben A. Sutter, DMD (Private Practice, USA)
Copyright: © 2020
|Pages: 73
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9254-9.ch018
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to present a series of chronic pain clinical cases that were originally diagnosed by non-dental healthcare professionals, as being something other than temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Specifically, the individual patient diagnoses were Phantom Bite Syndrome (PB), Meniere's Disease (MD), Cervical Dystonia (CD), and Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN), where the prior treatments rendered to each patient that were based upon these diagnoses, were all unsuccessful. Each patient was then re-evaluated with a series of biometric occlusal measurement technologies, which included the T-Scan 9/BioEMG III synchronization module. This two-function synchronized system was utilized in the re-diagnosis of each patient, as well as during their rendered occlusal treatment, in evaluating the accuracy of the treatment results, and during each patient's post-treatment maintenance. The four patients were treated with disclusion time reduction (DTR), after which each patient's symptoms either greatly improved, or resolved completely. The observations made in this chapter are highly suggestive that TMD can present as one of these alternative diagnoses, or that TMD was their original problem condition that was misdiagnosed, absent the objective occlusal force and timing data offered by the T-Scan 9 system.