OJW™: Weight-Control by Dental Professionals --Presented to the Tri-county Orthodontic Study Club
Channel: Dr. Ted Rothstein DDS PhD
Date: 13/11/2018

My work demonstrates that Dental Professionals (DPs) are welcomed by the public and as providers of weight control services as part of a Healthcare team that includes dietitians, physicians, psychotherapists and bariatric surgeons. OJW is a fixed intra-oral, bio-mechanical appliance and protocol for controlling compulsive overeating in carefully selected patients who are obese/heading toward obesity, that help them start regaining control over compulsive eating habits with potentially grave health consequences. Patients are wired into “Rothstein’s Position of Mandibular Weightlessness,” (approximating the physiologic rest position), thereby limiting the extent they can open their jaw. Permission to begin a liquid diet is obtained from their physician. The clarity of speech is unaffected. Seemingly extreme, after seventeen years providing OJW, it is arguably rather a benign non-invasive, safe and effective method, when using my protocol. Under my protocol, the DP is responsible for maintaining the health of the TMJ, Dentition and Gingiva. The patient is responsible for losing weight by dint of their passionate dedication and adherence to a long-term, low-calorie, liquid diet authorized by their physician or proxy (psychotherapist) with guidance from dietitians and nutritionists. Today I will enumerate the myriad consequences of obesity, and the DPs function as a member of a Healthcare team. I will describe the appliance and how-why it works. Then demonstrate how to wire the jaws and tell you about the position the jaw is wired into. I will outline the scope of the service. I will address safety and effectiveness by referencing a questionnaire I mounted in 2009. Documents will include the Informed Consent, Poor candidates; how to address problems, and a list of the ten most important elements of the OJW Service.