Physical Therapy Section: Management of the acute closed lock temporomandibular joint patient secondary to macro- trauma
BILL ESSER, MS, PT, CCTT

The techniques used to unlock and splint acute disruption of the temporomandibular joint secondary to macro trauma in children and adults are presented.

3 learning objectives

1. Gain a better understanding of why treating acute disc displacement secondary to macrotrauma may save our children from a lifetime of chronic TMD issues
2. Learn primary mobilization techniques needed to unlock acute disc displacements in macro traumatic patients and how to build and stabilize the TMJ with a temporary splint.
3. Understand the timeline and team approach needed by the medical and dental community to appropriately address acute disc displacement of the TMJ secondary to macrotrauma.

Bill graduated in 1979 with a master’s degree from Purdue University and in 1981 from the University of Iowa Graduate Program in Physical Therapy. Bill ‘s career has been as an outpatient orthopedic physical therapist including being an owner/partner in private practices in Southern Oregon 1986-2013. He retired from ownership in 2013 to concentrate on teaching. He is a diplomate of the Physical Therapy Board of Craniofacial Therapeutics, established in 1999 by an international group of physical therapists, and holds the title Certified Cervical and Temporomandibular Therapist (CCTT). There are fewer than 100 diplomates worldwide. Bill has almost 4 decades of multidisciplinary training and clinical experience in management of TMD, complex facial pain, and cranial and cervical spine dysfunction. In 2019 he completed a dental mini-residency under Jeff Okeson, DMD.

Bill has been an instructor for Empiridence and Myopain Seminars, Professional Therapies Northwest, and as an adjunct instructor on TMD for the Schools of Physical Therapy at Pacific University and George Fox University. Bill has also taught for the Oregon Physical Therapy Association and Oregon Dental Association on TMD. In 2011 and 2015 Bill was a speaker at the OBI Foundation for Bioesthetic Dentistry National Conferences. Bill is the coauthor of an editorial in March 2022 issue of Craniomandibular Journal of Sleep Practice on the relationship of dental occlusion, posture and back pain.

1 CE credit available to AAPMD members