Press reports

Osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint is one of the rarer diseases of the masticatory organ. Dentists and patients are therefore less familiar with the situation – reason enough for the editors of the NDR3 health magazine Visite to produce a report about it. As an expert in the studio, PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers answered questions from viewers and the presenter, Vera Cordes.
You can find the full interview on the NDR website (see link below).

With the “Update”, the Hamburg Dental Association has created a new format for the annual knowledge update, which is very well received – the new edition in 2023 was also fully booked. The first speaker was PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers with an overview of the current distinction between CMD and bruxism and the resulting consequences for diagnosis and treatment. Participants can download the lecture from this website. We hope you enjoy it!

DZW reports on PD Dr. Ahlers’ contribution to the new edition of the “Ceramics Handbook”

One of the best-selling books in dentistry describes the use of modern dental ceramics. “Das Keramikhandbuch” has now been published under the new title “Vollkeramische Therapiekonzepte” (All-ceramic therapy concepts) in a completely new edition with additional contributions by PD Dr. Ahlers. Manfred Kern recently reported on this for Die Zahnarztwoche (DZW) and presented an excerpt from the new sections on the diagnosis and treatment of significant tooth wear as a result of bruxism. You can find it here pictured. As a dentist, you can obtain the new edition of the ceramic handbook via the website of the AG Keramik. And as a patient, you can be sure that you will be treated according to the very latest standards at the CMD Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

Among the medical associations, the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy (DGFDT) is responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of CMD and bruxism. PD Dr. Ahlers was unanimously re-elected as Secretary General at the DGFDT General Assembly in Bad Homburg at the beginning of December 2022, alongside Prof. Dr. Alfons Hugger (Düsseldorf) as President, Dr. Bruno Imhoff (Cologne) as Vice President and Prof. Dr. Peter Ottl (Rostock) as Accounting Officer.

As Secretary General, PD Dr. Ahlers is responsible for the work on the guidelines, among other things. Most recently, a new version of the scientific communication “On the therapy of craniomandibular dysfunctions” was published, coordinated by Dr. Imhoff and PD Ahlers. The article is available at www.dgft.de.

The Working Committee on Fee Law of the German Dental Association has determined that the collection and evaluation of the Bruxism Screening Index is an independent dental service that is not included in the tabular fee schedule of the fee schedule for dentists and is therefore to be billed in accordance with §6 (1) of the fee schedule (analog billing). PD Dr. Ahlers, CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf, has achieved and classified this as Secretary General of the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy (DGFDT); Quintessenz News reports on this.

To ensure that the new Bruxism Screening Index (BSI) is accepted in dental practices, the DGFDT expert group has developed a corresponding questionnaire and instructions for evaluation. For implementation in the digital practice, the Hamburg working group led by PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers has developed suitable software, CMDbrux, an extension module for the CMDfact functional software. This has now been published by dentaConcept Verlag and is in practical use. Quintessenz News was again the first to report…

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the “Function Total I” functional congress could not take place as a face-to-face event in Hamburg as planned. The International Training Association IFG, as the organizer, reacted quickly and organized the first online congress in the field of functional diagnostics and therapy, including a contribution by PD Dr. Ahlers on the topic of diagnostics and therapy of tooth wear. The report in the Quintessenz News reflects the high standard of this innovative event.

Bruxism is the sum of teeth grinding and clenching. It affects around 10% of the population to an increased degree. Those affected feel the tension in their chewing muscles in the morning or during the day, sometimes like sore muscles, or sometimes – nothing! This is all the more delicate because bruxism is the main cause of non-carious dental hard tissue damage and can lead to considerable damage, including tooth root fractures or massive tooth wear, if left undetected.

A group of experts from the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy (DGFDT) has therefore developed a test based on the scientific literature that makes it possible to determine whether patients have bruxism – the bruxism screening index. Quintessenz-News was the first to present the new examination technique to the dental profession. PD Dr. Ahlers from the CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf is a member of the DGFDT expert group and author of the article in Quintessenz-News. We already regularly use the Bruxism Screening Index (BSI) for the early detection of bruxism for patients at the CMD Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

The Oral Medicine Compact column provides answers for dentists who want to stay up to date and know which methods work and are backed up by studies where possible. Specialist journalist Dr. med. dent. Jan H. Koch regularly reviews scientific and practice-oriented publications and reports on events. In this issue, the article deals with the topic of functional diagnostics in the digitalized world. You can find the article online – go on a journey of discovery!

With functional movement analysis, dentists can draw conclusions about the functional state of the masticatory organ, both with regard to the function of the masticatory muscles and neuromuscular control, from the course of condylar movement recordings. The prerequisite is computer-aided movement recording and an output of the movement data in a form that allows evaluation for movement analysis. What is new for users of the Zebris Jaw Motion Analyzer is that there is now a software module that enables this output. The name of the module is CMDfact interactor because the module prepares the data in such a way that it can subsequently be evaluated in the CMDfact software module CMDtrace. PD Dr. Ahlers from the CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf presented the new system at the Zebris Symposium in Leutkirch. The Quintessenz News summarizes the contents in its section.

New digital technologies also offer many new possibilities. PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers, specialist in functional diagnostics and therapy (DGFDT) from the CMD Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, reports on how they can support dentists in functional diagnostics and therapy.

As Chairman of the Training Committee of the Hamburg Dental Association, PD Dr. Ahlers chaired the 12th Hamburg Dental Conference. In 2018, this was dedicated to an update on periodontal diagnostics and therapy. The references to chewing function are also interesting – teeth that are overloaded in terms of chewing function have a poorer periodontal prognosis.

More than 1,000 participants attended the 32nd Berlin Dentists’ Day at the Estrel Convention Center in Berlin to find out all about the topic of functional therapy. The congress program was led by PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers (Hamburg), Prof. Dr. Florian Beuer MME (Berlin) and Dr. Johannes Heimann (Frankfurt).In the video, Ahlers and Fath as well as Dr. Marion Marschall, Editor-in-Chief of Quintessence News, and Christian W. Haase, Managing Director of Quintessence Publishing, summarize the two congress days. You can also read a detailed report on the congress program on Quintessence News under “Fit for the function”.

On July 1, 2017, the new guideline on the prescription of remedies in contract dental care (Remedies Directive for Dentists) came into force. It replaces the previous regulation, in which physiotherapy was only prescribed on the basis of a circular letter from the KZBV to the KZVs and in compliance with the economic efficiency requirement enshrined in the SGBV. New in the Remedies Directive are certain requirements for the dentist regarding the diagnostic findings required before prescribing. This article in Quintessenz News describes the background and possible solutions.

According to a recently published ruling by the Munich Higher Regional Court (judgment of January 18, 2017, case reference: 3 U 5039/13 ), dentists are obliged to check whether there are any indications of craniomandibular dysfunction (CMD) before treating patients with dentures.

For this purpose, a corresponding CMD screening must be carried out and documented. The court states that simply noting that a corresponding examination has been carried out is not sufficient; the examination must be documented according to the findings . The article by PD Dr. Ahlers in Quintessenz News describes the procedure required for this.

The demand for ceramic restorations is constantly growing. In order to minimize the risk of processing-related quality losses, including fractures, it is important to “think ceramic” right from the preparation stage – and to observe all preparation rules for a ceramic restoration. After all, a restoration can only be as good as its previous preparation.

The theme of the 2018 Berlin Dentists’ Day was simply “functional therapy”. This was what the Berlin dentists had requested in a survey. Three scientific conference chairs ensured a broad diversity. PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers, Hamburg, took the lead on Friday.

The Alex Motsch Prize of the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy (DGFDT), one of the most highly endowed scientific prizes in dentistry with prize money of € 5,000, was awarded by the President, Prof. Dr. Ingrid Peroz, at the annual conference in November 2017. Half of the 2017 prize went to Dr. Lukasz Katzer and PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers, CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf.

The topic of digitalization has now also arrived in functional diagnostics – the DGFDT conference in November 2017 showed where the journey is heading. Significantly refined digital recording systems (zebris) and virtual articulators (Gamma Dental CADIAX) are in the starting blocks. And digital evaluation of dental findings using special software that organizes the various findings
in chronological order and summarizes their content (dentaConcept CMDfact 4) is becoming the standard in functional diagnostics.

“Function” in dentistry is much more than CMD and splints. It is an exciting, truly interdisciplinary and evidence-based challenge for every dentist. Now in its tenth year, the “CMF – Zeitschrift für Kraniomandibuläre Funktion/Journal of Craniomandibular Function” (Quintessenz Verlag) provides up-to-date information on new developments in this specialist field and provides tips for practitioners. In this interview, PD Dr. Ahlers answers the questions of Dr. Marion Marschall, editor-in-chief of Quintessenz News.

PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers chaired the 12th Hamburg Dental Conference as Chairman of the Dental Association’s Continuing Education Committee. The focus of the Dentists’ Day was the update on the current status of periodontology. In addition to the program for dentists, the program for dental assistants and dental technicians took place in parallel. Interest was huge; the congress was once again overbooked. And the result obviously met the expectations of the participants, who were highly satisfied afterwards.

One half of the Alex Motsch Prize 2017 goes to Dr. Lukasz Katzer and PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers, both from the CMD Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. With this award, the DGFDT honors the best articles of the past year in the Journal of Craniomandibular Function. Dr. Katzer was the youngest prizewinner to date, and PD Dr. Ahlers is one of the very few authors to have been awarded the prize several times.

The restoration of occlusal surfaces with occlusal onlays is significantly less invasive than conventional treatment with retentively prepared crowns. However, the preparation requires different grinding instruments with innovative geometries. PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers (CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf) and Prof. Dr. Daniel Edelhoff (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) have developed these and answer questions about them in the new Komet Dental Blog.

Bruxism patients are characterized by abnormal tooth wear; they lose up to 30 times more enamel and dentin than others. According to PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers (Hamburg), the aim of restoring the VDO must therefore be to protect the remaining tooth structure, prevent loss of vitality and restore chewing function. Dr. Ahlers presented the “Tooth Wear Evaluation System” (TWES) according to Wetselaar, which classifies all teeth in comparison to the BEWE index, in order to record existing tooth wear.

New restorative materials enable durable tooth-colored dental restorations with reduced wall thicknesses and less extensive preparation. However, the preparation instruments used up to now have been developed for the preparation forms used in the past. PD Dr. Ahlers, Hamburg, and Prof. Dr. Edelhoff, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, have therefore developed new instruments in collaboration with the instrument manufacturer Komet, which enable preparation with less loss of substance. The DZW reports in detail on the international presentation at IDS Cologne 2017.

The Alex Motsch Prize of the German Society for Functional Diagnostics and Therapy (DGFDT), endowed with 5,000 euros, was awarded by the President, PD Dr. Ingrid Peroz, at the last annual conference in 2016. The Alex Motsch Prize has a long tradition and is one of the most highly endowed research prizes in German dentistry. The DGFDT awards the prize to the best work published in the Journal of Craniomandibular Function (CMF) on the subject of functional theory, functional diagnostics and therapy in a given year. For 2016, the award went to the Hugger/Utz/Seeher/Ahlers working group, who, together with 11 co-authors, wrote the “S2k Guideline for Instrumental Dental Functional Analysis”.

The ZM had published the updated scientific communication of the DGFDT and other specialist societies on functional therapy in an editorially revised version, edited by PD Dr. Ahlers, among others.

The Bremen CMD specialist Dr. Christian Könecke has read the article and congratulates the authors on the article in a letter to the editor.

The Hannoversche Allgemeine reported on craniomandibular dysfunctions, their causes and treatment options. The text was based on interviews with PD Dr. Ahlers (CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf), Prof. Dr. Ingrid Peroz (Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and PD Dr. Wolowski (Univ. Münster) and questions from the editors.

Die Welt reports on teeth grinding and jaw joint clicking and interviewed PD Dr. M. Oliver Ahlers, CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf, PD Dr. Ingrid Peroz, DGFDT/Charité Universitätsmedzin Berlin, and PD Dr. Anne Wolowski, APKK/Univ. Münster.

In its online edition, Der Spiegel reports on craniomandibular dysfunction with reference to an article by C. Mayer (dpa). PD Dr. Ahlers, CMD-Centrum Hamburg-Eppendorf, PD Dr. Ingrid Peroz, President of the DGFDT and PD Dr. Anne Wolowski, 1st Chairwoman of the AKPP are interviewed.