Steve Kraus

PT, OCS, MTC, CCTT, CODN

Course Reviews

Hi Steve,
My name is NR. I have incorporated TMJ patients successfully in my practice and this is thanks to my confidence that you boosted at the course.
NR PT, DPT


Steve,
The TMD class was amazing. Every PT should have that class just for marketing to dentists. Of course, I learned much more than my PT school taught me on TMD. I visited my local dentist just for a chat because she is my family dentist as well. She had no idea PT’s treated TMD. She refers out to someone. She asked me how to refer to PT. She did not know. I said just write a script. I didn’t even ask her to send me pts. I did not even get to that part of my speech. She said she will start sending me pts, PPO pts, because that is all she sees.
Thanks so much for this class.
SM, PT


Hey Steve,
I finally had my first TMD. I was so confident. The Eval form you gave made it so easy. I knew exactly what it was, how to treat it, and how to reassure the pt. Her dad is an MD and he came in and sat in for the Eval. I had a good conversation with him as well. Thanks again and I really enjoyed your class.
Thanks
SN, PT


Hi Steve. I took your class a few years ago and it was so great you’ve inspired me to continue my TMD education. Thank you for your time
EH PT


Dear Steve,
I attended your TMD course. It was the most beneficial, professional, and useful CEU I have attended in my PT career! I’m not sure if you specifically remember me but I am also a WSU grad! I have treated several TMD patients since your course and I’ve had great results! Thank you for a great comprehensive course. Thank you very much, hope all is going well for you.
Sincerely,
CS, DPT


Hello Steve,
I took your Atlanta course in April, and I have begun to see more referrals for TMD and hope to make this a significant part of my private practice that I will be opening in October.
Thank you for your help.
TG


Hi Steve, it’s good to see you are still teaching. It is thru you that I have touched and helped an incredible number of people. I have semi-retired and have a co-worker that I am encouraging taking your class. MH is doing great in carrying on the TMD practice I started here, and MH would be a nice additional help. Thank you for the knowledge you gave to me and the impact it has had on my patients.
JV


Hello Steve,
My name is MH. I am a 2XXX graduate of the XXX, XXX program. Almost one year ago, you came and spoke to our class about TMD. It has come to the time where I am going to get my feet wet and treat my first TMD patient. Luckily, you did an excellent job explaining TMD basics to our class making the topic easier to understand. I have been reviewing my notes from your lecture. I also have your TMD examination sheet and the soft food diet guidelines you gave to our class as a handout.
Hope you have been doing well. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you,
MH, PT, DPT


Hello Steve,
I attended your course in Indianapolis in September. I have been treating TMD patients from a local ENT and I now finally have the time to begin reaching out to dentists in the area. I am going to try using the company marketing department to help with identifying and calling dentists surrounding our clinics as an initial contact to be followed up by me. Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Respectfully,
AB PT
Clinic Director


Steve,
Thank you again for a great job with this weekend’s course! That was a lot of material to cover and make it “sink in” in such a short time. I feel much more confident with treatment of these individuals than I was before.
My first patient right out of the chute on Tues AM was a “direct access” chronic cervical & HA pain/ TMD pt. MOI was a driver’s side impact MVA in 2004 with min to no relief since her accident. She was driving. Had a Hx of TMD (“jaw clicked constantly”) before the accident but worsened. TOTALLY mismanaged and has been bounced around to just about every type of provider, including a PT!! Has refused to take pain meds as she “doesn’t want to rely on meds to live.” Was prescribed an OTC appliance (unknown type) by her dentist but discarded it because it was choking her. I had my doubts initially as she started talking about a lot of psychosocial issues; but as you had said, those issues are magnified when you are dealing with this unresolving pain issue. She was a DDWR patient with VERY significant left>right sided temporalis myalgia/trigger points. Palpation elicited familiar HA pain. Also had significant deep cervical paraspinal and minimal suboccipital muscle guarding, but generally very good bilateral OA joint and cervical spinal mobility. Hypomobile and tender over T1/2-T3/4 to PA glides. She was more concerned about her headache and left sided jaw pain than cervical symptoms. My Dx was Chronic Cervical Myofascial Syndrome, Left Temporalis Myalgia. Treatment: “Talked her down” to focus on herself versus the stresses that she couldn’t control. Performed gentle STM to her bilateral temporalis muscles. Taught her active opening, active opening with tongue up, active opening with wiggle. Outcome: She was ecstatic that someone actually found the cause/ source of her pain and was willing to address it without pushing meds on her. She understood that it would not “cure” her TMD but could help her manage her symptoms. Referral Source: Christian psychologist/family counselor (who I had treated for whiplash several years ago). Pt left smiling and able to do the ex’s without pain.
I am so impressed with this intervention. As a professional, I felt like I was all over the place with eval and treatment of TMD prior to learning the system that you taught us. Thank you so much.
Question: She says that she grinds a lot at night, however I wanted to try a few treatments to see if we couldn’t manage these symptoms through stress relief and clinical symptom mgmt. Would it make sense, if she is not completely relieved in a few visits, to try an oral appliance if the last one didn’t go so well? It was not full coverage and, like I said prior, not custom.
Best Regards,
SS, PT, MSPT


Steve,
Just wanted to say thank you for presenting such an excellent course this past weekend in SC. You are a credit to our profession.
Thanks for sharing your expertise in such an organized and practical manner. Keep teaching!
Marshall


Hi Steve
This is AM. I was one of the PTs at your course in RI in June. I truly appreciated your course and am excited to be utilizing the examination and treatment of TMD into my daily practice. Anyway, I have my first ‘marketing’ meeting set up with a couple of dentists this week. I am preparing a presentation.
Thank you for your time!
AM


Hello from the Pacific Northwest. Excellent new website, by the way. Can you send me any good articles on bite occlusion and its relationship to TMD? I have a dentist who puts ALL her jaw pain patients in anterior guidance splints because she feels the occlusions and guidance are the issue and normalizing the overbite will improve muscle function and jaw pain. I know there is a poor relationship, but she seems to be knowledgeable and seems to think she has good results. Oh, and she sends me patients for soft tissue work, so she understands the conservative approach very well.
Thanks GA, PT, MPT


Hi Steve. I took your TMD course in Indianapolis last year. One of my colleagues is desiring to take it early next year. Do you have a schedule of your upcoming courses or are you coming to the Midwest anytime soon with them?
Hope all is well. We have a small population of TMD patient’s that I treat at our clinic and your class was extremely helpful! Have a great day.
BB, DPT


Hi Mr. Kraus,
My name is JP and I am about to be a graduate of the University of XX in the physical therapy program. The reason I am e-mailing you is because I just spent 8 weeks with EB and have really enjoyed working with the TMJ and would love to attend one of your courses if you are teaching anytime soon. As I spoke with EB and we worked through the TMJ together he said that you are the man to take courses from when the jaw and neck are concerned. If you have any kind of web site that be helpful to me that would be wonderful. Thank you for your time and I hope that I get to hear from you soon.
JP


Hi Steve,
I attended your seminar over TMD back in 2003 in Atlanta. You and I chatted a little bit since then when I was having some issues with a dentist and ARAs.
In the meantime, I have expanded more on my understanding and comfort with treating TMJ dysfunction and have taken to heart suggestions you gave for educating dentists. I provide “lunch and learn” educational sessions with dentists on how PTs can impact patients with TMD. I also have lectured at dental schools to 3rd year dentists on PT and TMD. It has been so rewarding for me to share my knowledge with other professionals and students as well.
I am honored to have been approached by a local clinic to provide an in-house TMD lecture and lab. I have put together a complex PowerPoint presentation. Thank you!!! Regards, TK, PT, DPT


Hello Steve,
I received your chapter on TMD last week – Thank-you. What a well-organized chapter on TMD, with a PT perspective. Thank-you for sharing your work in this field.
MZ


Hi Steve
How are you? I hope you are well, and the clinic is running smoothly. I just wanted to email you to say a big thank you for letting me shadow you on my trip to the States. Since seeing you I have been able to bring an assessment and treatment plan together and started to treat TMJD patients effectively. I am also in the process of teaming up with Prof. PH to be his sole physiotherapist for his TMJD patients. Also, I have set up a FB page which has been well received by other dentists and patients. My journey over the last few months has been simply awesome and you have played a huge part of that so I cannot thank you enough.
Thanks again
Kind Regards, KP, BSc (Hons) MCSP, HPC, BSY.M


Hello, I took your course held recently in Atlanta. I really appreciate you teaching that course. I recently had 2 patients with whom I was able to use the information I learned.
Thank you.
AP


Hi Steve
I have just returned from New York, and I had a great time. I spoke to Dr. T DDS about the questions we spoke about, and he was in agreement with you. He does not believe that the disc had to be in place and that there are various schools of thought on CR/CO so he would judge his design on what was functional for the patient. Also, he prescribes exercises to the patient which were very similar to yours as well as referring to other PTs like E.
Thanks KP (Physiotherapist)


Hello Steve,
My name is RU. I am the director of A R S & S. I sent TM, PT to your course in Sept. She wrote me an email stating, “Great course this weekend. I learned a lot.” She was most impressed with the dentists attending and their input/interactions.
Sincerely,
RU, PT
Regional VP of Outpatient Therapy


Steve,
Great class this weekend. Well, you were right. My pt. returned today describing a return (and reproducible) of the pop in her L TMJ. Is completely asymptomatic in the joint, musculature, and neck. Had the “talk” with her re: not worrying about it, etc. (from the notebook), but didn’t actually “treat” her (no laying on of hands). Instructed her to continue with tongue-up opening and reviewed the postural exercises I had instructed her in. Sound good? Thanks.
ER, PT


Hello, Steve- My name is AM, and I am a PT who took your course in RI a few years back, and I continue to use what I learned in your course. I have been asked by a Dental Society in the southern district of the state (X) to give a two-hour lecture on PT’s involvement in treating this. I am very excited about this opportunity but also extremely anxious. I have spoken to many family physicians and individual dentists about TMD but not an entire group. I have ~ 1 hour/1.5 hour lecture from other talks that I have done but was wondering if you had any ideas on what I should include in another 30 minutes or so of the talk. I can always do lab time when I talk to PTs but thought that I should not with dentists? Do you have any thoughts or resources that I could research a bit more for the extra time? Any help or suggestions that you could give me, would be much appreciated! Thank you! AM


Thanks Steve. Really enjoyed having you here, plus I’ve gotten 100% positive feedback.
TK


Some of my staff said it was the best class they ever took.
I feel the same.
Thanks so much Steve!! AL, PT, OCS
CEO, P T I, Inc


Good morning, Steve!
Hope you had a good week after your visit to NY. Our department is so grateful for your expertise and your course was a great success. We have utilized your teachings already and are seeing improvements. Thank you for making the trip and for making this topic more of our favorite to treat.
Thank you again for all your work in this field – your years of work have come to benefit so many of us.
Take care, CS


Hi Steve,
Thanks again for a great course this weekend. I have already started using some of your ideas.
SN, PT


Hi Steve,
I want to thank YOU for making the long trip up here. I know we will all benefit from the knowledge you have translated for us. I also feel a great deal of gratitude for the efforts that you have made on behalf of our profession, for many years. The free use of your knowledge and communication of that is appreciated.
I hope our paths cross again.
Cheers,
JC


Steve,
Thanks again for coming to XX. Our outpatient staff all feel very comfortable evaluating and treating TMD. Everyone, Randy included, commented on your common-sense systematic approach to evaluation and treatment that allows the learner to meet the course objectives and feel comfortable utilizing the information on Monday morning. I believe humor and a relaxed attitude provide and optimal learning environment and you effectively used both. Hoping to meet with Dr. D, our neurologist soon. In the meantime, I already recruited an employee in finance. Her dentist has been telling her she must have orthodontic work to “fix her bite” before her TMD will improve. She is very excited about trying a more conservative approach first.
I will definitely let you know how our H/A clinic comes along as well as how successful I am at getting some dry needling education.
Thanks again. Will definitely recommend you.
DC PT, DPT
Manager, P R N Regional Health System


November 2, 2014 11:43 PM
Hi Steve,
I just wanted to thank you very much for an excellent presentation. I did not have time to say thank you and goodbye.
Thank you again for the class. I learned a lot. I have to digest and practice!
Thank you again!
Safe trip home!
KT


Good morning, Steve! I found my course evaluation stuck in a pile in my desk so forwarding to you along with a final thank you for such a wonderful course. Hope you are able to relax today! Thank you also for the resources you provided and the ones on your website. You truly have and continue to contribute to our profession in such a positive way. It was great getting to know you a little and I hope we can keep in touch. Take care. F
FM, PT, MS, AT-Ret
President S & M PTherapy, Inc.