Health Center » Healthy Dentistry

By: Stephen R. Goldberg, D.D.S., C.C.N.

 

The two TM Joints, directly in front of each ear, are of vital importance to the entire body. The most frequently undiagnosed condition in all of Western medicine is the Temporo-mandibular Joint (TM Joint) Syndrome. I mention Western medicine specifically because Oriental medicine considers the ear to be the center of their universe for healing all parts of the human body. In auricular (ear) acupuncture, specific loci (point locations) on the external ear which influence the function of definitive structures or organs in the entire body are stimulated and controlled. Oriental and occidental acupuncturists have always learned, and oftentimes taught, the importance and the balancing of the TM Joints.

 

More than one chiropractor has remarked that the TM Joint is the most important joint in the body, and their rationale was that the TM Joint is the body's only bilateral joint. If one side is out of balance, the bones of the spine will develop a strain, an imbalance, or a twist (scoliosis). This is why a dentist and a chiropractor or a manipulation-trained osteopath should work together as a team for many TM Joint Dysfunction cases.
Considering the obvious need for screening and identification of this syndrome in our stressful, polluted society, shouldn't dental students get more than a three-hour lecture on this Temporo-mandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome during their four long years in dental school? I didn't!

 

I still recall my class's three-hour lecture in 1963 about the historical development of TM Joint problems, starting with Costen's syndrome, which had its heyday in the '30s. The research references were boring. There was no practical information conveyed. We weren't given any texts or reading materials. We still had no idea how to diagnose the condition. The worse thing of all was that we had no idea of its great importance to all of our future patients.

 

If most dentists do not know what to look for or how to diagnose varying degrees of TM Joint problems, how can we expect medical doctors to know about it?

 

If an occasional well-informed Otolaryngologist (ENT specialist) evaluates a complaint of an earache and finds nothing wrong with the ear, that doctor might think about the possibility of a TM Joint problem. Since most dentists do not know how to diagnose a TM Joint problem, how could this ENT specialist tell you to go to the dentist to find out if you have a TM Joint problem?

 

Along the same line, if a knowledgeable Neurologist finds no brain tumor and nothing wrong in the head and nervous system of a patient suffering with intractable headaches, and since the jaw muscles comprise more than 2/3 of all the muscles in the head, that doctor would have to know a dentist who could evaluate the cause of severe muscle contraction headaches due to referred pain from trigger points (knots) in the jaw muscles.
Talking about muscles, dental schools as well as medical schools never deal with the synchronicity in function of the human muscular, skeletal and fascia systems. In dental school, we are told that the mouth and jaw are connected to the rest of the body, but no interactions or correlations are discussed. However, when studying with osteopaths, all of a sudden there are startling phases like "the human jaw is the pump for cerebrospinal fluid, and the tongue in an individual with a normal swallowing pattern will maintain a well functioning primary respiratory mechanism in the cranial bones.

 

To go one step further, every dental, medical, osteopathic and chiropractic physician is taught that the cranial nerve, the Vagus Nerve (L. vagus-wandering) originates at the base of the brain, passes and touches membranes connected to the petrous portion of the Temporal bone before passing through the foramen at the base of the skull. The Vagus Nerve then passes through the neck and branches out to innervate most of the internal organs in the chest cavity and the abdomen.

 

Since the TM Joint is the place where the Temporal bone and the Mandible meet, let us contemplate the following scenario. If the jaw (TM Joint) is out of balance and that membrane attached to the Temporal touches and irritates the Vagus Nerve, some branches of that wandering nerve may feasibly transmit pain messages from the heart, even though there is no schema in the heart muscle. I am not saying that open-heart surgery has been performed in people who have angina pectoris (pain in the chest) as a result of a TM Joint imbalance, but I am trying to make the point that the human head is by far the most complex neurological, vascular, muscular, skeletal part of our body and that the TM Joints are right in the center of this most complex part of our body on both sides.

 

We briefly touched on the relation of the tongue, the most facile muscle in the body, and its relation to the breathing mechanism of the head bones. What happens when the tongue, the only muscle in the body that is connected on only one side, is always held in an abnormal position in your mouth? What happens when your tongue presses on your front and/or side teeth every minute, day and night, when you swallow subconsciously? (I was never taught anything about that in dental school. Were any dentists in my reading audience ever taught that? I think not.)

 

I'll tell you what may happen. After 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 years of unintentional abuse, your teeth may start loosening from the intermittent pressure of that strong muscle, your tongue. Or your teeth may shift without loosening, causing an orthodontic treatment relapse.

 

How many of you, who have had braces, feel that your teeth moved to some extent after the braces were removed and the retainer wasn't used any more? How many of you were told you had to wear a retainer for the rest of your life?

 

It is my contention that if the teeth become crooked again after the braces were removed, (1) you are probably swallowing with your tongue pressing against your teeth, or (2) you may have some oral habit, such as mouth breathing, lip biting, nail biting, or believe it or not, even thumb sucking in some adults.

 

The orthodox health practitioners eventually catch up to the alternative, holistic or complementary health professionals. It is too bad that the unsuspecting, intimidated general public is deprived of many natural, innovative therapies that could reduce suffering and even premature demise if offered forty years before; even through "scientific" double blind studies were not completed. On that same note, we must question the approval process since a "scientific" double blind study was never conducted to confirm the efficacy of quadruple coronary bypass surgery. Isn't it possible that a great many high-risk individuals who die in the operating room or soon after would live longer if no surgical procedures had been performed?
There are a number of nutrition-oriented medical doctors who believe in non-invasive, preventative medicine techniques, including clearing out the artery walls with EDTA or DMPS or DMSA chelation therapy. Stress treatment, education, and very specific individualized nutritional programs with a very specific detoxifying supplement regimen sound less risky than surgery and, I believe, may reverse some degenerative somatic processes.