Teeth Don’t Mesh

Teeth Don’t Mesh

Teeth Mesh

Neck muscles tighten to support weight of head

Trigeminal Nerve

Chronic Pain

          Solution Center

       The only area of the entire skeleton that protrudes through the skin is the teeth, and it's the skeletal imbalances in the teeth and jaws at the base of the cranium that trigger the 5th cranial nerve, the chief sensory nerve of the head and face, to cause headaches. The GOOD NEWS is the teeth are out in the open. We can change their shape and alignment to improve the balance, guidance, and support structure permanently (without surgery) and eliminate the cause of the Pain Anxiety Cycle. By correcting the structural engineering problems within the bite, we interrupt the over stimulation of the 5th cranial nerve, called the trigeminal nerve. This prevents the recycling of the chronic headaches by eliminating the recurring over stimulus of the trigeminal nerve. This 5th cranial nerve is considered the chief sensory nerve of the head and face, and it is unique in that it also governs the motor control of the muscles we clench and chew with. Put your fingers over your temple and clench your teeth. For most headache sufferers, this is one of the areas that generates most of the pain.

    The teeth in every human skeleton are rigid vertical support beams with numerous sloping cusps or incline planes that must be positioned properly like the teeth in a gear wheel of a clock or transmission (see diagram on the left). If the teeth are not properly positioned, the 5th and largest of the 12 cranial nerves will set off a chain of structural and neuromuscular events. These have the potential to cause a lifetime of chronic pain, unless balance and equal distribution of the structural support is restored in the alignment and height of the opposing teeth of the bite.

           With the new computer technology that is available at the Chronic Pain Solution Center, we are able to balance these forces to within thousandths of a millimeter by changing the mechanics and structural engineering of the bite to provide a long-term cure for chronic headaches.

         The entire medical and dental community must learn what signs to look for and how to diag-nose this problem.  Diagnosis is not difficult, yet this is the most under-diagnosed area of medicine and dentistry today. I am willing to speak to and instruct any group wanting to learn more about how to diagnose and treat this epidemic. This treatment technique is successful at permanently eliminating headaches in 9 out of 10 cases. We need to put an end to people suffering needlessly for 10, 20, 40, and in some cases 64 years.

We need to train an army of dentists in this new area of medicine, if we are even going to put a dent in the number of people who suffer daily worldwide. Many suffer from one or more of the symptoms listed on this site that have previously been considered incurable. Chronic headaches and chronic vertigo are just two of these symptoms.  The estimates of those suffering from only headaches in most countries are about 16-17% of the populations.  If all the other symptoms are included, I think it would be well over 20% of the 6 billion people in the world and possibly higher in Third World countries that don't have adequate dental care. Twenty percent of 6 billion is 1.2 billion people, real people and their families, suffering daily with chronic pain.  

    Estimates in America for migraines alone range from 29 to 40 million people. When recurring chronic stress, sinus, and cluster headaches are added, the number is much higher.

 Ideally the field needs to be a new specialty of medicine and dentistry called Skeletal Structural Preventive Medicine. From the perspective of the obvious importance of balance throughout nature and the physical world, the human body is not exempt from the physical laws of nature. Medicine and dentistry could prevent an enormous amount of pain by balancing the skeletal structure on both ends of the body early in life.

    The painful effects of the uneven distribution of forces due to unequal leg length work their way up through the skeletal system.  Similarly, structural imbalances between the teeth, the bones, and discs of the jaws will cause forward and/or lateral head postures that cause painful effects generating from the top down. For example, the head weighs as much as a bowling ball. If you have a forward head posture, even your toes will be working harder. We are walking and running skyscrapers, and we are not exempt from gravity and the importance of structural balance. You wouldn't build a skyscraper with shorter structural supports on one side or another. And a skyscraper doesn't move or perform strenuous acts like running, stopping on a dime, and leaping in the air for a jump shot.

    Imagine the needless chronic knee, hip and back pain the medical community could prevent by addressing the leg length discrepancy early in life by increasing the length of the shorter leg with a higher heel or wearing a custom designed orthotic in the shoe. I have arthritic knees to prove it. Think of the foot, knee, hip and back surgeries it would prevent, and the needless drug consumption.

If we use today’s computer technology to balance the way the upper and lower arch of teeth mesh to within thousandths of a millimeter, we eliminate the grinding and clenching that occurs throughout the day and especially at night, the reason you often wake up in pain, unrested and depressed.  The resulting headaches feed on themselves and are regenerated each and every day. The need to clench and grind at hundreds of pounds per square inch is eliminated when the triplane comfort position is located and established within the bite.  (Click here to see a picture of the triplane comfort position)  Imagine the pain, drugs, and surgeries that could be prevented, if the skeleton was balanced from the bottom up and the top down during the teens, when all the growth is occurring and the permanent teeth are erupting.  Menstrual cycles begin at about the same time as the eruption of key permanent teeth that dictate the triplane comfort or discomfort position. This is why migraines have been mistakenly attributed to hormonal changes for so long.  This is not to say they don't play a part, but the teeth play a larger role.

          Also, migraines have been thought to be hereditary. The genetic correlation has more to do with the inherited jaw structure and bite. Women are 3 times as likely to have migraines, largely because they have smaller jaw structures and are more likely to have crowding or crooked teeth. A study done in Europe of two hundred thousand people found that 70% of women have a malocclusion of some sort.

     The Time magazine cover story of Oct. 7, 2002 reviles the more researchers learn about the trigeminal nerve, the more they believe it is involved in all types of primary headaches, including migraines, stress, and cluster headaches. I believe it also causes sinus headaches because the trigeminal also supplies the sinuses.

 It's like pieces of a 3D puzzle. If the multiple slopes on the cusps of the lower teeth do not mesh precisely with the multiple slopes and incline planes of the immovable upper jaw, the free hanging moveable lower jaw (the mandible) will deflect off the upper cusps and be forced out of position. This over stimulates the trigeminal nerve on several fronts: the teeth that are out of alignment receive excessive amounts of repeated traumatic forces every time the teeth impact together while chewing, clenching or grinding; both jaw joints and their cartilaginous discs are forced to function in a strained or dislocated position, and the chewing muscles controlled by the trigeminal may be spurred into spasm. These impact and compression forces between the teeth easily reach hundreds of pounds per square inch. The Pain Anxiety Cycle can be initiated and sustained by the trigeminal nerve as a result of any one or all of these mechanically strained conditions. If any other area of the body is repeatedly traumatized at forces reaching hundreds of pounds/sq.in., or if a person has a dislocated or bulging disc in their back, no one questions that they have muscle spasms and recurring pain. Yet in the area of the body where hard structures of the skeleton are impacting over and over, all night and all day, is rarely even examined.

   This repetitive incitement of the trigeminal motivates the Pain Anxiety Cycle to continue indefinitely in the form of numerous referred pain symptoms. The persistent pain producers increased stress, which initiates more clenching and grinding, a known Para functional habit related to stress. These co-conspirators enable the pain anxiety cycle to feed on itself year after year. Unless we permanently modify the teeth and redirect the traumatic forces that are provoking the chief sensory nerve of the head and face, it will maintain its perpetual hyper-excited state.  (See Pain Recycles)

    To eradicate these forces, we must first locate the triplane comfort position via a precisely engineered and computer balanced triplane mandibular orthopedic appliance or splint. This appliance enables us first and foremost to demonstrate to the patient that we can eliminate the painful symptoms before we make any permanent changes to the teeth themselves. Once we have located the triplane comfort position rather than the habitual stressed position that the existing bite or dislocated TM joints force upon the mandible, we can take the necessary unstressed precise triplane bite records and align plaster models of the upper and lower arches of teeth on a machine called a fully adjustable articulator that simulates the movements of the mouth. This now enables us to study the skeletal extensions, the teeth, and compare the comfort position with the stressed position caused by the mal-alignment and structural engineering of the existing bite. We can then uncover the stimulus to the hyper-excited state of the trigeminal nerve. When the exact location of the trigeminal triggers are known, we see more of the contributing ingredients to the problem, and we are trained as dental engineers to design permanent solutions to the problem.

    It may be as simple as computer balancing the bite via equilibration (locating high spots and grinding it down or reshaping guidance systems within the existing bite). It may be as involved as crowning certain teeth to provide the needed vertical height where teeth are worn down, poorly restored, or never erupted to an adequate height or position.  Or we may have to design an overlay partial to supply the needed support in a harder substance than the plastic of the splint.  

    The symptoms include:  chronic recurring headaches, most migraines, stress, sinus, cluster and morning headaches; pressure and stabbing pain behind the eye; vertigo and dizziness; ear pain, tinnitus and hearing loss; sensitive teeth, gum disease; sinus pain;neck pain and fibromyalgia; TMJ joint pain: jaw pain, clicking, and dislocations; muscle spasms of the head, face, and neck; sleep loss, depression, and chronic fatigue. (More thorough list is on the symptoms page)

   Drugs are not the answer. They cloud the patient’s life and create long-term side affects, systemic complications, and needless abdominal surgeries years later. In 90% of cases, using modern technology and precise guidance systems, we can locate the neuromuscular triplane comfort position of both the sensory and motor roots of the trigeminal. This eliminates all or most of these life-altering symptoms without drugs.

 I've devised a few experiments to help you understand how these skeletal imbalances can bring about symptoms. Try these few experiments:

1. Clench (tighten) your left bicep muscle by bending your arm as tight as you can a couple of times. Now add this: at the last second of clenching the left arm, grab the fist of your left hand with your right hand and twist (torque) your left wrist to the left. Continue to tighten the muscle as you torque the wrist. Do this several times, and it will help you understand how the teeth, muscles, nerves, and skeletal structures of your head are being torqued every time these deflecting slopes of the misaligned teeth impact each other. Now think about doing this hundreds of times per day and clenching all night long at forces exceeding hundreds of pounds per square inch. I hope this will help you understand how this repeated clenching could refer pain throughout the trigeminal system, interfering with its functions. (See trigeminal) What if the disc is dislocated in one or both joints as well? Imagine the potential for protective muscle spasms. The trigeminal supplies the joints and the muscles which spasm to protect it.  The teeth that are out of alignment repeatedly torque the mandible, its joints, and discs out of position at the last second of impact and closure. Similar to how you were just torquing your wrist and bicep.

2. Take one shoe off and walk around the house for a half hour or just stand still. You will understand how this effects your knees, your hips, your back, the muscles of your legs, etc.  When these same imbalances occur in the bite, the side that is too low causes one set of problems, and the side that is too high causes another. The difference in the mouth is these discrepancies can be as small as thousandths of a millimeter, yet they can trigger these symptoms.  Why? Because the teeth are part of the hard rigid structure of the skeleton, and the trigeminal nerve is able to detect imbalances as small as one ten thousandth of a mm. If you have even a small stone in your shoe, your mind will not allow you to walk normally. The location of these imbalances in the mouth causes a multitude of symptoms. Remember: the lower jaw is the only limb that crosses the midline, and the largest cranial nerve of the 12, the trigeminal, is being over stimulated on both sides of the head every time you close.

3. Place a wooden or plastic tooth pick between two of your back teeth and bite and squeeze mildly on it for 5 or 10 minutes. Understand that when you’re sleeping, you are not biting mildly.  You are clenching at hundreds of pounds per square inch. Imagine the pain you can generate if that high spot, the toothpick, is constantly present.

4. Have someone punch you in the shoulder lightly or slightly hard.  Imagine if this continued for 8 hours a day for a week, then a month, and year after year. After years of putting repeated traumatic stress on this shoulder, I want you to find a doctor who would tell you the pain is “all in your head.” Then why is the repeated trauma of hundreds of pounds per square inch of mal-aligned teeth over and over, while bruxing and grinding all night during sleep, day after day, night after night, year after year, considered psychosomatic or all in your head? The entire trigeminal system is open to referred pain from these teeth and strained joints after 8 hours of sustained trauma. No wonder you have pain in the morning. The pain generated during sleep prevents you from reaching deeper levels of REM sleep. This leads to fatigue and depression from the loss of sleep and the endless cycle of pain.

   This problem, which affects all the upper regions of the body, needs to be a new specialty of medicine and dentistry called Skeletal Structural Preventive Medicine. If we balance and align the forces acting on the upper regions of the skeleton in the mouth, and if orthotics are made for the shoes to compensate for skeletal leg length discrepancies and alignment of the arches of the foot, imagine the needless pain, drugs, and surgeries it would eliminate throughout mankind across the world. The muscular balance and stress on joints throughout the entire weight bearing areas of the skeleton would greatly improve.

    Common sense alone should tell us that this balance is important, but it is totally being ignored in America. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but from reading and speaking with others, it doesn't sound like it is in the forefront of thought in the medical and dental fields anywhere.    

            I hope this site helps you to understand how recurring headaches and many other symptoms are caused by the chief sensory nerve of the head and face, and the structures it supplies. This 5th cranial nerve supplies the teeth and joints of the jaws. And just as a stone in your shoe will cause you to walk differently, favoring the side that avoids the pain, over stressed areas of the teeth, and/or the strained or dislocated disc in one or both joints will cause you to carry your head more forward or off to a side to avoid the trauma.  The dilemma here is locating the site of the trauma. It's much more difficult and precise than just removing the stone, and sometimes we have to increase the height of the teeth to keep the bones from rubbing bone-on-bone due to the dislocation of the disc. Surgical removal of the disc and arthroscopic surgery of the joints have proven to make the condition worse because the poor engineering and support within the bite that contributed to the problem in the joints is never corrected. The laws of physics dictate that the lack of balance between the two arches of teeth will continue to trigger the trigeminal and cause the pain.

   We definitely feel we have the CURE for chronic recurring headaches and numerous other symptoms, and we hope you will encourage your friends who suffer needlessly to visit StopTheHeadache.com in the future. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

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