What is a Deprogrammer?

To a dentist, this is not someone who rescues someone from a cult. It is a device, similar to a Hawley retainer with a small palatal bite plane, that when worn, opens a patients bite and allows only a single point of contact just behind their maxillary central incisors. Deprogrammers are advocated by some dentists as a means of making the muscles involved with closing to relax so that a patient will be able to find their Centric Relation (CR) position more easily. Some patients with inflammation of the muscles involved with closure have difficulty closing in a reproducable CR position, but after wearing a deprogrammer for a week or It is use two, they experience less muscular inflammation and are able to be easily guided into a CR position. Thus the device is said to "deprogram" the muscles involved with closing and is often employed with patients who are experiencing TMJ pain.

After wearing one of these devices for twenty three hours a day the muscles involved with closing will in theory become more relaxed and allow a patient to more easily close their mouth in centric relation. Deprogrammers have a single point of anterior contact tends allow over used and inflammed  masseter muscles to calm down.  Centric Relation is a term dentists use for" the most retruded position a patient can comfortably close their mouth"and is employed by dentists as a basis for performing any full mouth reconstruction involving a denture or many crowns or bridges. In this supposedly reproducable position, the condyles are centered and positioned properly in the glenoid process of the skull's temporal bone.

 Paradoxically, Deprogrammers can sometimes cause TMJ pain to worsen, especially if a patient has inflammation in the posterior portion of the capsular ligament, since these devices tend to put more pressure on this part of the capsule. If after wearing one of these devices a patient's pain worsens, they should  remove the device and contact their dentists for further instructions.

About the author: Lawrence Spindel DDS is a dentist in New York City, who has has maintained  a general and cosmetic dental practice for over thirty years.