AADR - American Academy of Dental Research - which mostly consists of dental school professors that don’t actually treat TMD / TMJ patients successfully, claim that TMD will get better over time on its own. If not, then you need to manage the symptoms with neurologic medications. Here is a story of a patient that definitely did not find that to be true. She has suffered for years until Neuromuscular orthotic and Orthodontic therapy is giving her pain relief for the first time. Watch and hear it in her own words:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwCQ5naPi0s
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
TMJ pain, TMD, headaches need Neuromuscular treatment
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010SUNCT Headache Attack
Saturday, March 27th, 2010SUNCT headaches are characterized by bursts of moderate to severe burning, stabbing, or throbbing pain, usually on one side of the head and around the eye or temple.
SUNCT stands for Short-lasting, Unilateral, Neuralgiform headache attacks with Conjunctival injection and Tearing. Neurologists believe that SUNCT is one of the Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgias.
Autonomic nervous system responses include watery eyes, reddish or bloodshot eyes caused by dilation of blood vessels (conjunctival injection), nasal congestion, runny nose, sweaty forehead, swelling of the eyelids, and increased pressure within the eye on the affected side of head.
According to National Institutes of Health, these headaches are generally non-responsive to usual treatment for other short-lasting headaches. Corticosteroids and the anti-epileptic drugs gabapentin, lamotrigine, and carbamazepine may help relieve some symptoms in some patients. Studies have shown that glycerol injections to block the facial nerves that carry pain may provide immediate relief, but the headaches recurred in about 40 percent of patients studied.
We treated a patient that had a SUNCT diagnosis and also had many TMD signs and symptoms. Once the jaw alignment is corrected with NM orthotic, all of her symptoms improved greatly. So when she had an episode of right face and right eye lid drooping, it felt like a recurrence of a nightmare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYA7Mcdk8k0
Since the SUNCT headache attacks have completely gone for a year since beginning NM treatment, I was confident that we can “cure” this attack with Neuromuscular dental protocols. The mandibular condyle can put pressure on the Facial nerve if the jaw moves towards the back.
IF it were an incurable neurological phenomenon, then nothing I did would matter.
In just one hour of Ultra Low Frequency TENS applied in specific locations ( Las Vegas Institute protocol) the symptoms disappeared completely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVEsak9kv1Y
More information at www.MidwestHeadaches.com
Dental health affects fertility
Sunday, July 13th, 2008The connection between dental health and overall health….the “Oral systemic link” is widely recognized. Most of the studies related to periodontal ( gum support) disease and heart disease, stroke, diabetes and low birth weight babies. It makes sense to expect that infection in one area of the body is bound to affect other areas. But this new study has an interesting twist.
Male infertility is often connected to connected to chronic bacterial infection of the epididymis. This is the structure that “stores” semen. This study from Germany showed a direct connection between male sterility and dental infections. An abstract with the references is below.
They only studied those that were resistant to antiobiotic therapy. I wonder if the results would be even better if all of the sterile subjects were included in the study.
One more reason to make dental health and its maintenance a high priority!
1: Andrologia. 1993 May-Jun;25(3):159-62. Links
Bacterial foci in the teeth, oral cavity, and jaw–secondary effects (remote action) of bacterial colonies with respect to bacteriospermia and subfertility in males.
Bieniek KW, Riedel HH.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
Bacteriospermia requiring medical treatment were diagnosed in more than 70% of the subfertile patients who had since 1988 attended the gynecological clinic at the RWTH hospital in Aachen. In 23% of all cases specific treatment with antibiotics did not reduce the concentrations of bacteria in sperma. Thirty-six patients with bacteriospermia resistant to antibiotic therapy were then subjected to dental examination. A high incidence of potential dental foci was found in all patients. In a test group of 18 patients these sources of potential infection were eliminated. Between dental operations and therapy swabs were taken to determine bacterial levels and bacteriological composition. It could be demonstrated that the bacterial spectrum of the intraoral samples was almost identical with the spermiograms. Six months following completion of dental treatment a further spermiogram analysis was carried out. In the test group about two thirds of the spermiograms proved sterile. Spermatological parameters, such as motility, density and morphology, had also clearly improved. In the control group the findings of the spermiogram remained poor. This study indicates that a direct causal relationship exists between bacterial colonies (dental foci) and therapy-resistant bacteriospermia which probably leads to subfertility.
Could NM Dentistry help Vocalists, opera and other professional singers?
Sunday, July 6th, 2008A good friend of mine from Canada, Dr. Sahag Mahseredjian raised this question in an e-mail. I have edited and paraphrased the information below. Many professional vocalists impose very heavy demands on the mandible (lower jaw). When a singer performs vocal exercises for many hours, the jaw movements border upon the extremes of its physiologic range. Lower jaw motion is energized by the muscles that link the mandible above to the bones of the face and cranium, and below to the neck, including the hyoid bone, clavicle (collar bone) and sternum (breast bone).
Healthy mandibular movement for effective vocalization requires a neurophysiologic integration of all of the muscles and bones involved in carrying out this function. If the jaw is not in NM position, head & neck muscles are usually in a hypertonic (tight) state. This may affect their performance.
A common condition affecting professional vocalists is cranio-mandibular-cervical muscular dysfunction resulting from sprain of the muscles connecting the mandible to the head and neck. This dysfunction adversely affects the quality of the voice and also may cause head, facial and ear pains. The major muscles involved in voice production are strongly influenced by mandibular position. So, a craniomandibular-cervical muscular dysfunction can result in hoarseness and chronic voice irritation which interferes with the ability of the vocalist to produce sounds of good quality and high amplitude.
An explanation of the anatomy of this area is below:
The trachea is the main trunk of a system of tubes by which air passes to and from the lungs. The respiratory system which includes the lungs functions to inhale and exhale air through the trachea.
The larynx is the modified upper section of the trachea and contains the vocal cords. These include a pair of vocal folds that when drawn taut and subjected to a flow of breath, then vibrate to produce the sounds of the voice. In the context of the human voice, resonance refers to the quality imparted to sound vibrations originating in the larynx by resonator chambers formed by the oral and nasal cavities. The power or amplitude of the voice depends on respiration. Hence the breath control training for singers that emphasizes deep diaphragmatic breathing.
The larynx is composed of four principal cartilages: the thyroid, the cricoid, the arytenoid and the epiglottis. These cartilages are controlled by three primary groups of muscles. When contracted, the cricothyroid muscle brings the cricoid and thyroid cartilages together, thereby stretching the vocal cords to control the pitch of the vibrations produced thereby. The tension on the vocal cords is primarily controlled by the thyro-arytenoid muscle, while three sets of arytenoid muscles are involved with vocal cord adduction.
The proper balance of the muscles of the larynx is essential to effective vocalization. The laryngeal mechanism is a precision instrument requiring critical muscular tensions and cartilage positions to produce optimum sounds.
The larynx is suspended from the hyoid bone disposed in the throat between the thyroid cartilage and the roof of the tongue. The hyoid bone is linked by muscles to the mandible or lower jaw. The tension on these muscles is a function of the position of the mandible, and has a strong influence on the behavior of the larynx.
A Neuromuscular Orthotic exploits the relationship between mandible position and voice production to significantly improve the ability of a vocalist to produce sounds of fine quality and high amplitude.
