Many times I have had a patient come to my office after seeing many different specialists. They have seen Neurologists, P.T’s, Chiropractors, Pain Management Doctors just to name a few. They have been given appliances like night guards from their general dentist and have seen no relief or the symptoms getting worse. This is because no one is looking at the cause of the problem. Drugs are pushed at them, exercises, adjustments, acupuncture that has maybe given them relief but only temporary. The cause has not been addressed so the pain comes back. I have heard from people who have suffered with headaches for many years with no relief and these people are at their whit’s end.
Unfortunately these people have spent a large amount of time and money with no relief. So if we look at the mouth as a chewing system, and understand that it is an intricate system of muscles, joints, and teeth plus a sensitive nerve complex it makes more sense. If you just treat one part of the system without addressing the function of all of its parts, it becomes clear why there still is this struggle.
Getting to the cause of the problem takes a careful diagnosis and testing. Once you gain control of the system, healing occurs and the cause of the problem can be identified. When we control how the teeth fit together and conclude that the cause of the pain is of a dental correlation, we may need the other specialists to help us in other areas. For example, I may need to have help from a Chiropractor to adjust the cervical spine because nerves are getting pinched that keep us from having complete success. Another example would be where a patient can still not open wide as they would like and a PT becomes a valued partner in the overall care plan of the individual. Then I can adjust the patients bite to make sure that the teeth are functioning properly with the muscles and the joints.
When the oral system is not looked at in total and the bite is not considered, the cause is not identified and since these other specialists can’t work with the cause, symptoms are just considered so pain relief is only temporary. 85% of all headaches are from a dental origin. Therefore the earlier that this can be ruled out the better the patient will be both in terms of time and money addressing the issues with quicker results.
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