Is Occlusion Connections (GNM) the Same as LVI (Neuromuscular Dentistry)?

The short answer: No. They are two separate, independent teaching institutes, both in Las Vegas, and they teach different approaches to the bite. Occlusion Connections (OC) is not affiliated with LVI.

Patients ask this because both names come up when you search for help with TMJ problems, and both are connected with the words “neuromuscular dentistry.” This page explains what OC teaches, so you know what to expect from a dentist trained here.

──────  ◆  ──────

Two Institutes, Two Approaches

LVI is associated with neuromuscular dentistry, usually shortened to NM.

Occlusion Connections teaches gneuromuscular dentistry, GNM. 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 how the teeth actually meet; and
• the neuromuscular measuring sciences — low frequency TENS, jaw tracking, EMG and ESG, which measure 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, the two answer what neither could answer alone.

──────  ◆  ──────

Dr. Chan’s Own History with LVI

Dr. Clayton A. Chan, the founder of Occlusion Connections, knows both approaches from the inside. He was invited to teach at the Las Vegas Institute and served there as Director of Neuromuscular Dentistry from 2000 to 2006, where he established the Jankelson neuromuscular occlusion curriculum and introduced Myotronics K7 instrumentation alongside his mentor, Dr. Robert Jankelson. He resigned in July 2006, honored a two-year non-compete agreement in full, and founded Occlusion Connections in Las Vegas in November 2008 as an independent teaching center.

What he inherited, he carried forward — and then he built a place to take it further. Read his full story →

──────  ◆  ──────

What That Means for You as a Patient

A GNM dentist does not estimate where your jaw should be. The position is measured — your muscles are relaxed with low frequency TENS, your jaw movement is tracked, and muscle activity is recorded — and then the bite is finished to that measured position in fine detail, because details matter when you can feel a human hair between your front teeth.

Dentists tell us the same thing in their own course evaluations:

──────  ◆  ──────

How to Tell What Training Your Dentist Has

“Neuromuscular” on a website does not tell you where, or how far, a dentist trained. Ask:

• Where did you train, and which courses have you completed?
• Do you use measuring instrumentation to determine a physiologic jaw position?
• How do you finish the bite once the position is found?

Every dentist who has trained at Occlusion Connections who has taken at least Levels 1-4 courses is on our map, and each pin opens that doctor’s page with the complete list of OC courses they have taken.

More questions to ask any dentist: the Eight Questions on that same page.

──────  ◆  ──────

Is One Better Than the Other?

We will not answer that for you, and you should be cautious of anyone who does. We can only tell you what we teach and why: that the jaw position should be measured, not assumed, and that the bite must then be finished to that position. Ask your dentist to show you the measurements. A dentist who measures will be glad to.