Link

Dental therapy often modified the patients occlusion, understood as the bones and dental relationship, static and dynamic. Severe tooth wear, crowding, loss of masticatory units and surgical resections due to neoplasms, are the main situations that require occlusion and dental reconstruction. Basically any dental work that changes the occlusal surfaces and/or the position of the teeth can potentially alter proprioception; Kogawa et al. (J Oral Rehabil. 2010; 37: 322-8) show that the perception threshold can reach the 2 hundredths of a millimeter. Frequently the dental procedures cause changes in proprioception oral forcing the neuromuscular system to implement functional adaptations. It has been clearly demonstrated as dental afferents play a role in the recruitment of the masticatory muscles. Dental occlusion changes can vary the intensity of the global contraction of the different masticatory muscles but also their relationship (Wang et al. Acta Odontol Scand. 2009; 67: 187-192). Muscle imbalances may originate from a number of factors such as inconsistencies between the occlusal surfaces, interference in the balancing or working sides and loss of posterior support (Trovato et al. Stomatologija. 2009; 11: 26-31) (in addition to pain stimuli caused by inflammatory or degenerative phenomena that should be excluded before performing a functional assessment). It was also demonstrated as proprioceptive dental alterations due to iatrogenic occlusal disturbances (200 µm thick) may require functional adaptations also to the muscles of the neck (Ferrario et al. J Oral Rehabil. 2003; 30: 34-40). Electromyography standardized can be a useful aid in the instrumental evaluation of dental proprioceptive related muscle adaptations and can providing guidance to the clinician to reduce the complications of reconstructive therapies.