OVERVIEW

Occlusion in Everyday Practice: Managing Patients with Simple to Complex Needs 2026 is organized by Spear Education and will be held from Sep 11 - 12, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America.

Description:
Occlusion remains one of the most confusing topics in dentistry. This seminar is designed to aid a clinician in understanding occlusion, and how to manage occlusal issues in patients with simple to complex problems.

Specifically, the seminar will focus on the most common questions dentists have in their everyday clinical practice. Starting with, when is it safe to use the patients existing occlusion for my treatment, and when is it not? Followed by answering the logical next question, if I can’t safely use their existing occlusion, what do I do? This leads to the question of, if I change their occlusion, how do I know my changes will be successful? Ultimately the answer to these questions depends on the patient’s muscle activity levels, and the structural condition of the temporomandibular joints. The seminar will cover in depth how to assess muscle and joint concerns in a very practical and efficient way.

Finally, the seminar addresses how we perform occlusal therapy, from choosing an appropriate occlusal appliance, to performing an occlusal equilibration. The seminar also goes in depth on assessing the occlusion from both an analog and digital approach and covers what records are necessary for different levels of complexity in treatment. This will include the use of a facebow, analog or digital, bite records, analog or digital, creating mounted models, analog or digital.

What you will learn at this In-Person Seminar:

How to simplify occlusal evaluation and design for predictable dentistry in any clinical situation.
How to identify high-risk occlusal patients in advance and how to manage with treatment.
To efficiently evaluate your patients' muscles, and predict whether any therapy is necessary, which treatment may be beneficial, and how to discuss it with your patient.
To gain confidence in evaluation and management of normal and healthy TMJ’s including possible solutions if they are a problem, and how to have a conversation with your patients about the TMJ
How to perform a complete joint and muscle exam, and how efficiently it can be done in any practice (with multiple video examples)
How to become confident in choosing among all the different occlusal appliances available, including a specific flow chart of the appliance choices based upon your patients' symptoms and history.
How and when to utilize mounted casts / printed model in the treatment planning process.
When and how to take a digital or analog facebow and what information it provides.
When to use a seated condylar position (CR) vs. the patients existing intercuspal position (ICP).
How to make predictable and reproducible bite records in a seated condylar position (CR) utilizing either bi-manual manipulation, leaf gauge, or Lucia jig with either a digital or analog workflow.
How to determine when an occlusal equilibration is necessary and how to perform the equilibration predictably and efficiently.
How to manage patients with different malocclusions (excess overjet, anterior open bites, deep overbites, and Class III relationships) who won’t do orthodontic treatment.