Video Website powered by Einstein IndustriesAQUALIZER VIDEO RESOURCES

DR. STEVEN OLMOS: This is a graphic representation of the CT scan that we just completed on the patient. This scan is done in 40 seconds and it was done without placement of the Aqualizer, so this is the habitual relationship of the patient and their habitual occlusion. Okay? Now, what we're looking at in this is the relationship between the frontal or AP view of the condyle, right and left, to show that there's a orientation difference because you can see the medial pull here is not outlines as clearly as it is on the right hand side.

And we're also looking at the airway. This red line right here, going through the base of the tongue, is showing us the surface area of the oral pharyngeal airway. This is the epiglottis here with the base of the tongue. So many people use this two dimensional picture, or use a - - x-ray in order to discern whether or not there's proper airway patency. But really, you need a coronal section in order to see the surface area, and that's why a CT scan is superior to a - - x-ray to determine volume of an airway.

So this is the airway before the Aqualizer, and now, we will take a look and see what that airway looks like. So here's the volume of the airway. It shows how the airway has really changed in its dimension. Depending on where the mandible is setting, the tongue and the - - muscles are all moved to a dimension that changes this airway. So that's why an Aqualizer not only causes muscle relaxation by decompression of the joints, but also, by reducing parafunctional activity by maintaining a patent airway. Okay?

Now, we'll show you that the positioning of the condyles and what we've done is we have taken a line right through, from medial to lateral, through the condyles, both right and left, and we'll see the special orientation with the condyles in proper spacing from the temporal bone in an SMV view, - - vertex, so that we can get the proper orientation down the long axis for this sagittal view. And here, we're showing that, in the center cut, that this is the positioning that we have with our Aqualizer in place, which would look very physiologic or what we might term the definition of centric relation. Okay?

And this is what it would look like without the Aqualizer. Okay? So now, this is the positioning that you're looking at, and you can see that these are actually a little more posteriorly positioned now. So this is the decompression. This is demonstrating the decompression, and also, the opening of the airway. So we can clearly differentiate the advantages of the placement with this applicance.