Dr. Lea graduated from UBC Dental School in 1980. He has been a solo, general  practitioner on Salt Spring Island for over 40 years. For most of that time, he also treated  patients requiring complex orthopedic and fixed orthodontics. He has been diagnosing and treating occlusal problems, joint pain, reduced function, and general bite imbalances for  well over 20 years.

He has spoken on this topic at Chicago's Midwinter Clinic, New York's GNYDM,  Florida's Dental Conference in Orlando, several times at Vancouver's PDC and at several  other dental meetings in Vancouver, Boston and Vancouver Island.

He is keenly aware of the well-known and highly-regarded individuals who speak on this  aspect of dentistry, but has found that their procedures and beliefs have not given him and  his patients the affordable, consistent, stable results that he was hoping for.

Initially, in his practice, he referred patients with 'TMJ' to Dr. David Bowler, in Sidney,  BC. Dr. Bowler studied myofascial pain and dysfunction under Dr. Janet Travell. Dr.  Bowler introduced to him, in fits and starts, some of his ideas, diagnostic concepts and  treatments that he had found to be very helpful in relieving patients of their occlusal  problems and establishing stable, comfortable bites.

Unfortunately, Dr. Bowler passed away before Dr. Lea could understand his complete  diagnostic approach and treatment system. It took Dr. Lea several years to work out a  simple, easily-applied, affordable yet still economically practical and effective way to  integrate what he had begun to learn from Dr. Bowler that he could now apply to his own patients suffering from occlusal problems that often led to uncomfortable, even painful,  joint symptoms.

Dr. Lea is now very confident with the protocol that he has developed for the diagnosis