We thank Dr. Romans for his interest in our article. Indeed, we have read Dr. Peter Dawson’s work and would agree that he has been a notable figure in the field of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) diagnosis and treatment. However, our article dealt primarily with the issue of centric relation as it related to orthodontics, and we do not believe Dr. Dawson’s writings directly dealt with both topics concurrently.
Expanding on Dr. Romans’ point, however, there are other famous individuals in the occlusion/TMD arena who we also did not cite, but whose work has certainly shaped our views and has had a profound effect on the writing of our articles.
Some of these eminent individuals, clearly giants in this field—some of whom were included as secondary authors in our reference list—are Drs. Laskin, Greene, Okeson, Rugh, Solberg, Clark, Pullinger, Seligman, Dworkin, Dolwich, Brandt, Storey, Major, Nebbe, Ash, Lund, Turk and Ruddy.
Furthermore, these individuals were cited numerous times in the bibliographies of the authors we did include in our reference list, and these individuals and their work were all cited in our previous publications, including Dr. Dawson. Finally, most of the distinguished individuals listed above participated in one or more of the American Dental Association conferences on TMD in 1982 and 1989, and their views were subsumed in these conference reports, which we did allude to in our article.
Once again, we want to thank Dr. Romans for his insightfulness and wish him well.
