Gneuromuscular dentistry — GNM — is the new discovery now being reported to the scientific world.
Neuromuscular dentistry was the discovery of its era, and it earned that standing. The instrumentation that made objective measurement of the masticatory system possible was genuinely new, genuinely resisted, and is today accepted widely enough that few still call it new. What the profession has not yet reckoned with is what came after it — the clinical gnathic principles and the neuromuscular measuring sciences brought together into one discipline. That is GNM. That is the discovery now on the table.
The discovery that came before
NEUROMUSCULAR DENTISTRY and Computerized Electronic K7 Instrumentation has for the past sixty years been a standard and leader in objective measurements of the physiologic masticatory systems responses. It was Dr. Bernard Jankelson (Father of Neuromuscular Dentistry) who first introduced the Myomonitor TENs to the profession in 1964 followed by the invention and discover of jaw tracking instrumentation (kineseograph) in 1971. Nine years later Dr. Jankelson’s son, Dr. Robert Jankelson was the primary developer of electromyography (EMGs) for Myotronics kineseograph (1980) followed by the further development of electrosonography (ESG) in 1987.
These measuring devices and objective measuring occlusal concepts have taken much criticism from many within the dental profession even to this day. Today, dentists who come to this level of history and neuromuscular appreciation continue advocating the principles and protocols that these technologies bring to many realizing them as effective aids in the diagnosis and treatment of TMD.
On New Discoveries
Whenever a new discovery is reported to the scientific world, they say first, “It is probably not true.”
Thereafter, when the truth of the new proposition has been demonstrated beyond question, they say, “Yes it may be true, but it is not important.”
Finally, when sufficient time has elapsed to fully evidence its importance, they say, “Yes, surely it is important, but it is no longer new.”
— Montaigne, 1533–1592
The New Discovery: Gneuromuscular (GNM)
Neuromuscular dentistry has travelled that full cycle. It was called untrue. Then it was called unimportant. Today the same profession that dismissed it says it is no longer new.
Gneuromuscular dentistry stands at the beginning of the same cycle.
GNM is not a renaming of neuromuscular dentistry. It is the clinical union of two bodies of knowledge that spent decades apart — the gnathic occlusal principles, the disciplined study of condylar movement, cusp form, occlusal contact and the human articulator; and the neuromuscular measuring sciences, low frequency TENS, jaw tracking, EMG and ESG, which quantify what the muscles and joints are actually doing.
Gnathology without measurement guesses at the jaw position. Measurement without gnathic discipline cannot finish the occlusion. Practised together, and only together, the two answer what neither could answer alone.
That combination is the new discovery — and it is the one dentists arriving at this level of the work are now being asked to realize.
As the gnathic occlusal principles and techniques continue to evolve along with the progression and continued evolving of the neuromuscular measuring concepts comes Gneuromuscular (G+NM), a further advancement and refinement of the neuromuscular teachings. As some would rather say, “it’s probably not true”, or it is perhaps true, but not important and eventually they will say, “Yes, surely it is important, but it is no longer new.”
The Motto at Occlusion Connections is: “What do you not want to know” – Clayton A. Chan, DDS
CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?
