Etiology and dental treatment of severe involuntary orofacial-cervical movement disorders

Geste antagonistes in idiopathic lower cranial dystonia

Geste antagonistes, or sensory tricks, are well described in focal dystonia affecting the neck, hand, and face. Improvement in dystonic movements is typically maintained while the trick is performed, but disappears when the geste ends. We investigated the phenomenological features of geste antagoniste maneuvers in 19 patients with idiopathic lower cranial dystonia who were prospectively evaluated over a period of 6 years. Of the 19, 10 were men, mean age of onset was 49.8 years, and the most commonly involved lower cranial area was the jaw (10 patients). In most patients, dystonia was task-specific. Taking advantage of the improvement with a sensory geste, we manufactured oral appliances that mimicked the geste in 8 patients, and 3 continue to use it.

Prosthetic dentistry in the treatment of movement disorders: dyskinesias and other neurological abnormalities

As long as the scope of dentistry is limited to teeth and supporting structures, their care and repair, probably no body of medical knowledge can be considered more traditional. However, a number of muscular and neurologic phenomena have been related to the dentition: unconventional dental prosthetic therapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of temporomandibular joint disorders and movement disorders such as spontaneous orofacial dyskinesia and tardive dyskinesia. Although only anecdotal, the above results and an unanticipated event that occurred in one case of dystonia muscolorum deformans question everything that had been previously assumed about the limits of dentistry.