| | Dr. David regularly attends Continuing Education (CE) courses. The state of Illinois requires only 36 hours over every 3 years. Dr. Hyten regularly attends over 100 hours per year. Some instruction is more strenuous than others, but it takes a lot of time to keep up on the latest materials, methods and health care recommendations.
Specifically, there have been a lot of time spent on antibiotics and "pre-meds" for heart and joint replacements. The American Heart Association (AHA) changed its recommendation significantly. The number of patients that need a Premed under the new guidelines is greatly reduced.
The new drug, Bis-phosphonates (example - FOSAMAX, BONIVA, ACTONEL, ZOMETA), for bone cancer and osteo-perosis has caused some new dental concerns, too. A syndrome called OSTEO-NECROSIS occurs in the jaws of about 5% of the patients that have taken the medicine by IV. This medicine causes major complications for extracting teeth. An oral surgeon will be contacted in this case.
Sedation is another topic that has been requested by many patients. The topic of sedation is really consistant with basic life safety and emergency management of airways. We take our job of administering anesthetics and other drugs seriously. We routinely inject 8-10 people daily. Each injection requires the skill to manange possible side effects. We take classes yearly, such as CPR or use of an AED.
Most headaches (about 80%) are thought to originate from facial (muscular) pain. The muscle that sits on the temples (temperalis) are primarily responsible for grinding of the teeth. Many people are aware of 'temporal' headaches, which is usually worse with chewing gum and relieved only with strong pain medicine.
Dr. Hyten has been trained at the Las Vegas Institute on the most progressive modalities to diagnose and treat pathologic malocclussions (bad bite). Diagnosis may require models, pictures, questionare, xrays, and bite relations after proper muscle relaxation. A fantastic site to explore this NEURO-MUSCULAR approach is the work of Dr. Clayton Chan in Las Vegas. Feel free to research more info about Dr. Chan on his website.
Neuromuscular dentistry recognizes that the muscles that move the jaw must be in a comfortable, relaxed position in order to not be in conflict with the teeth and joint.
Common symptoms that occur when teeth, jaws and muscles are in conflict include:
- Headaches
- Loose teeth
- Worn, chipped, or cracked teeth or fillings
- Clenching or grinding
- Ditched root grooves
- Pain or clicking and popping in joints
- Shoulder, neck, and back pain
- Numbness in arms and fingers
- Pain behind the eyes
- Facial pain
- Difficulty swallowing
- Pain and sensitivity in teeth
- Crowded teeth
- Receding gums
- Ringing or congestion in the ears
|
