About Herb Blumenthal, DDS

Dr. Herb Blumenthal has been in active practice for more than 48 years. He has always sought out knowledge that would help him better serve his patients. That quest has led him to study the relationship of TM Disorders to medicine, occlusion, chiropractic medicine, kinesiology, restorative dentistry, biofeedback, neurophysiology, muscle physiology, nutrition, sleep disorders… and other areas outside of dentistry. He has applied this multi-disciplinary information to the diagnosis and treatment of TMD patients for more than 38 years. He has partnered with a wide range of professionals and developed a unique perspective of the interrelationship of TMD treatment as a multidisciplinary therapy involving many professionals who work in concert to best treat these very special patients.
He has directly and positively impacted the lives of countless patients with his ability to listen, observe, and understand. That number has been exponentially increased by his sharing of what he has learned over the years with other dentists as a teacher, mentor and advisor. The quest led him to The Pankey Institute 38 years ago and he continues that relationship today. He began to give back as a member of the visiting faculty 28 years ago and has served as one of the lead faculty for the Bite Splint and Temporomandibular Evaluation course.

On The Critical Nature Of History-Taking

Let your patient talk. The patient has lived with the problem for an extended time and has information that can help solve the mystery. Many times I will ask the patient, “If you had the ability to do anything you needed to do, what would you do to fix the problem?” Sometimes I have been surprised by the answer. It is the practitioner’s quest to assimilate this information and put it into a usable format to piece together the puzzle. Allow your history taking to be flexible enough to explore unexpected avenues presented by the patient.