I read with interest Dr. Ronald Gilligan’s letter to the editor in March JADA, as well as Dr. Jeremy Shulman’s letter and Dr. Gilligan’s response in August JADA.
Certainly, the occlusal vs. nonocclusal etiology of temporo-mandibular disorder and brux-ism has raged on for years and will continue to do so until it is addressed in a fair forum by members of both sides of the issue and researched properly.
What I find interesting and lacking in Dr. Gilligan’s response is the scientific evidence to show that introducing a slight prematurity into the dentition creates a change in a patient’s baseline muscle activity reading.
To my knowledge, no research has shown this. To the contrary, what research is available was done in the past by doctors such as John Rugh, Chuck Green and Dan Laskin, showing that this has no effect.
If occlusal prematurities are the cause of bruxism, then we should be able to create brux-ism in a nonbruxist population by introducing them. If creating strong cuspid rise or deep bite conditions causes a decrease in patient parafunctional activity, show me these studies.
