[Postural examination in daily occlusodontology]

According to the osteopathic and chiropractic concepts, facing a TMJ problem, the practitioner has to determine if the trouble observed in the stomatognatic apparatus is the cause or the effect of the structural problems present anywhere else in the body. The postural examination allows to answer this question. Tow techniques can be used. First a static and dynamic posture test proposed by Bricot. The level of the cranium, the eyes, the shoulders, the wrists, the pelvis and the ankles is analysed, from a front view; from the side, the gravity line is inspected: vertex, auditory meatus, shoulder, hip joint, anterior side of the tibia, ankle joint. The vertical posture can be studied from the front: the arms are held straight and the antero-posterior length between the fingers is measured. From the back, one notes the recoil of the buttocks on one side. An ocular convergence test is performed. Then one uses a Romberg test (oscillation of the body when the eyes are closed), and a Fukuda stepping test. The patient is then asked to bite on a compress, and the same exams are redone. If no change occurs, we are dealing with an ascending problem: the origin of the problem is not the stomatognathic system. The second technique is the Meerssemann test that needs the practice of Applied Kinesiology muscle testing. The patient is lying supine and one tests: the dental occlusion, the two TMJs, the temporal muscles, masseters, pterygoids, sterno-cleido-mastoids, upper tapezius, left and right sacro-iliac joints, psoas muscles bilaterally.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)