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Common Causes of TMJ Syndrome/Bruxism
by +Lawrence Gold
The Institute for Somatic Study and Development
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As with all conditioning problems, it can be changed with proper training. An accelerated training process, clinical somatic education), dramatically reduces the time needed for conventional dentistry to correct TMD. |
See TMD, a cause of teeth-grinding, headaches, earache, and neck soreness, corrected in eighteen minutes (or so). See BEFORE and AFTER comparison images and the process that got the subject of this video there. |
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Dentists commonly regard TMD as being of different types: joint arthritis at the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), muscular soreness (myalgia), articular disc displacement, misfit of the upper and lower jaws, or of traumatic origin.
However, all of these conditions reduce down to the same cause: tight muscles of biting and chewing, and therefore the same kind of treatment can resolve them all (except for "disc displacement without reduction", which is a surgical situation).
Let's see how.
It results from excessive compression forces upon the TMJ, imposed by chronically tight muscles of biting and chewing. The joint breaks down under pressure. Treatment must therefore retrain those muscles to a normal, low tension resting state ("float" between teeth), to be effective.
That "burn" disappears nearly instantly, once muscles relax. For a lasting reduction of muscle tension and burn, a training process is needed. Faster and slower training processes exist.
When jaw muscles are chronically tight, the articular disc gets squeezed between the two surfaces, upper and lower, and may get dragged out of place by jaw movements (displacement) -- a very painful condition.
If the displacement is within the rebound capacity of the attaching ligament, the disc can return to its home position ("disc displacement with reduction"), once excessive compression forces ease. If the ligament gets stretched past its rebound capacity, the disc stays out of place ("disc displacement without reduction").
While something radical like surgery may seem to be a necessary option, actually what is sufficient is to bring the jaw muscles to rest. To do so increases the tolerance (i.e., comfort) of the mismatched situation to the point where it is not disturbing.
Gum chewing is not a cause, in itself, of TMD. I say more about trauma, below. |
Conditioning InfluencesThe jaw muscles, like all the the muscles of the body, are subject to control by conditioned postural reflexes, which affect chewing and biting movements. The reason people don't go around slack-jawed and drooling, for example, is that a conditioned postural reflex causes the muscles of biting and chewing always to remain slightly tensed, keeping their jaws closed.People's jaw muscles are always more or less tense, even when they are asleep -- but the norm is very mildly tense -- just enough to keep the mouth closed and lips together. The degree of tension people hold is a matter of conditioning. For brevity, I'll discuss only conditions that lead to TMJ/bruxism and not the normal development of muscle tone in the muscles of biting and chewing. These influences fall into two categories:
Emotional StressEver heard the expressions, "Bite your tongue"? "Grit Your Teeth"? "Bite the Bullet"? "Hold your tongue"? "Bite the Big One"? They all have something in common, don't they? What is that?To someone who regularly represses emotion or the urge to say something, these expressions have literal meaning.
Such repression, over time, manifests as tension held in the muscles of speech -- in the jaws, mouth, neck, face, and back -- the same as the muscles of biting and chewing.
No doubt, this assertion will cause much distress among dentists, and I regret that, but how can we escape that conclusion? Consider the experience of dentistry, both during and after dental surgery (fillings, root canal work, implants, cosmetic dentistry, crown installation, injections of anaesthetic, even routine cleanings and examinations). Consider the response we have to that pain or even the expectation of pain: we cringe. We may think such cringing to be momentary, but consider the intensity of dental surgery; it leaves intense memory impressions on the nervous system evident as patterns of tension. (Who's relaxed going to the dentist? -- or coming out of the dentist's office?) The physical after-effects show up as tension in the jaws and neck, and often in the spinal musculature, as well -- and as a host of other symptoms. Let's go back to our fond memories of dentistry. If you've observed your physical reactions in the dentist's surgery station, you may have noticed that during probing of a tooth for decay (with that sharp, hooked probe they use), you tighten not just your jaw (can you feel it?) and your neck muscles, but also the muscles of breathing, your hands, and even your legs. It's an effort to remain lying down in the surgery station when, bodily, you want to get up and get away from those instruments. With procedures such as fillings, root canal surgery, implants and crown installations, the muscular responses are more specific and more intense. For teeth near the back of the jaws, we tense the muscles nearer the back of our neck; for teeth near the front of the jaws, we tense the muscles closer the front of the throat, floor of the mouth and tongue. This reflexive response has a name: Trauma Reflex. Trauma Reflex is the universal, involuntary response to pain and to expectation of pain. It gets triggered in relation to the location of the pain and to our position at the time of pain. Muscular tensions form as an action of withdrawing, avoiding, or escaping the source of pain. In dentistry, with the head commonly turned to one side, in addition to the simple trauma reflex associated with pain, we have the involvement of our sense of position, and not just the muscles of the jaws are involved, but also those of the neck, shoulders, spine. All of these conditions combine into an experience that goes into memory with such intensity that it modifies or entirely displaces our sense of normal movement and position. We forget free movement and instead become habituated or adapted to the memory of the trauma (whether of dental work or of some other trauma involving teeth or jaws). Our neuro-muscular system acts as if the trauma is still happening, even though, to our conscious minds, it is long past, and the way it acts as if the trauma is still happening is by tightening the muscles that close the jaws. Since accidents and surgeries address teeth at one side of the jaws or the other, the tensions occur on one side of the jaws or the other. Thus, the symptoms of such tension -- jaw pain, bite deviations, and earaches -- tend to be one-sided or to exist on one side more than on the other. The proof of the role of trauma reflex? -- the permanent changes of bite and tension of the muscles of biting that have behind them a history of dental trauma -- and the changes you see in the video that occur as this man is relieved of those conditioned postural reflexes. View the video and see for yourself.
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The Institute for Somatic Study and Development
Lawrence Gold, C.H.S.E.
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