Injured teacher’s jaw locks, neck locks resolved! Migraines, ear pain, fatigue improved too!

For more information http://www.MidwestHeadaches.com

Amanda is a Special Education teacher. She is passionate about helping the Special needs children even though some of them have behavioral problems. Amanda’s jaw was injured by a student. She suffered with daily jaw locks, sever jaw pain, neck locks and neck pain. She used to have migraines and ear pain occasionally but they became constant after this jaw injury. Her jaw would lock and her neck would lock as well which made it impossible for her to do the job she had loved to do – helping these children.

Amanda was feeling hopeless. TMD clinical examination confirmed that she had jaw alignment “TMJ” problems that was exacerbated by the jaw injury, it can be fixed without surgery and that is the likely root cause of her many symptoms even beyond the jaw.

Amanda went through detailed diagnostic tests including our unique "Raman CCMD Protocol" of Physiologic Neuro Muscular Dental (PNMD) procedure to determine the optimal jaw and neck alignment. Balance tests revealed that her postural compensations were primarily due to the jaw alignment. So that linked her jaw problem to whole body symptoms such as fatigue and poor balance.

She was then fitted with a physiologic neuromuscular fixed orthotic for 90 days as a reversible phase 1 treatment. This is both a therapeutic and diagnostic step. Even though phase 1 fixed orthotic is only on the lower teeth, like teeth extensions to make up for the jaw alignment discrepancy, there needs to enough of an improvement of symptoms to give the patient confidence to go forward with treatment or to give up and reverse course. While that only happens about 7% At least we would not have made any irreversible changes such as jaw surgery or orthodontics to move teeth or grinding on teeth to “equilibrate the bite”.

Amanda started noticing improvements gradually. This is one of the important reasons that we use a PNM Fixed orthotic. It is correcting the jaw alignment truly 24/7, every second of the day. Of course, the key is how accurately the jaw / neck alignment was diagnosed first. That is the alignment that the fixed orthotic maintains.

Within 13 weeks of Phase 1 PNM Fixed orthotic, all of her symptoms were improving significantly.

Reviewed top symptoms individually for any changes / improvements. All of them improved to various levels: 1. Jaw pain - 65%. 2. Ear pain - 70%. 3. Headaches - 80%. Amanda also reported that her balance has improved by 40%. Her sleep has improved and she recently slept for 12 hours solid. She typically only gets about 5 hours of sleep per night. Energy upon awakening has improved by 25%.

Objectively, performed muscle palpations and recorded 27/44 painful points with a pain score of 81/132 vs 44/44 and 122/132 pre op. Checked cranio-cervical range of motion 90 degrees to the right and 90 degrees to the left vs 0 degrees to the right and left pre op.

Since many of her symptoms were aggravated during her sleep, that needed to be addressed. Due to the damaged condition of her TM Joints, there was too much slackness. Such a “lax” joint falls back easily to the side during sleep. This results in continued pain in TM Joints as well as collapsing the airway during sleep. As such we needed a solution to control that as well.

By the conclusion of her phase 1 fixed orthotic, the phase 2 long term solutions in her care were Computer Assisted Design / Computer Assisted Milling (CAD/CAM) Removable orthotic made to duplicate the refined alignment of the fixed orthotic during day time. At night time a Mandibular Repositioning Device (MRD) was made to keep the jaw in an even more optimal position to keep the airway open and protect the TM Joints during sleep.

All of the symptoms had improved significantly to various levels: 1. Jaw pain - 95%. 2. Ear pain - 100%. 3. Headaches - 100%.

Amanda also reported that her balance has improved by 90%. She is not falling over as often. Reported that her neck mobility has improved by 100% and her energy level has improved by 95%. She used to have difficulty turning her neck to look at the students or flex her neck to look down to work on her computer reports. She no longer has that issue.

Amanda is back to work with no limitations. She can continue to help the Special needs children and pursue her passion without pain!