Lloyd:>Students who have studied with me and have TMJ problems have,
invariably, found their greatest relief by seeing a good dentist.
Most of the causes of TMJ stem from poor or incorrect occlusion of
the teeth which is not caused by a particular method of singing nor
of keeping the jaw relaxed. When the manner in which the teeth meet
(occlusion) is corrected most forms of TMJ are corrected or
minimized. The corrective procedures that I have observed with my
students have ranged from the minor correction of occlusion by having
the surfaces of some teeth corrected by the dentist, to the wearing
of an appliance at night, to a complete restructuring of tooth
alignment.<
I have that problem and I kind of became an expert. I went to 3
orthodontists. Each gave me a different explanation/ solution. My search has
given me the widest perspective an "amateur" can have on that subject, I
believe.
The first one I saw is the most expensive around. 9 out of 10 Brazilian rich
and famous trust him with their teeth. He wanted to correct my occlusion as
described by Lloyd above. Estimation: US$6,000.00!!!!!!! Caio, poor and
INfamous, went back to his dentist, who happens to be an orthodontist too.
He said that what the famous guy wanted to do was an absurd, that he would
never do that. All he would do was make me a mouthguard for when I went
slept. As a university teacher, he could give me a detailed explanation:
Orthodontics is a relatively recent science and, as such, it hasn't
developed a consensus on many issues. There are different schools. One of
them is the American school, which advocates what Lloyd described above and
is followed by the first specialist I saw.
The problem with the American school: if you change the mouth occlusion, you
change the whole dynamics of the mouth. as you focus your attention on two
teeth that are "having a little private fight" at night, you automatically
change the occlusion of the rest of the mouth. Usually, they make that
"gypsum model" of your mouth, but even that is not safe, as they can't
"test-drive" all the combinations.
For example: they "correct" the occlusion, your jaw starts closing a
different way, and then two other teeth must be "corrected". As you start
doing that, it's impossible to predict when they'll be able to stop. That
will keep changing your mouth occlusion, but your jaw may change in such a
way that the patients starts developing pains much more unbearable than
those from the TMJ/TMD problem because the jaw in such a position that it
starts pressuring those nervs right behind them. Or people start developing
headaches, etc.
Your whole mouth dynamics was CO-developed. Your teeth are the way they are
because of the way you HAVE closed ( occluded ), opened, used your mouth
since you were born. You can't just change two of them while the others rest
in peace!
Then I found another orthodontist, from the German school, who gave me
another lecture. All he said agreed with what my dentist had told me, but he
said there's a way to change it if you change the whole dynamics gradually
and "naturally".
There's a German mouthpiece that is used WHILE YOU'RE AWAKE too, during the
whole day, and that forces all your mouth muscles and the swallowing muscles
too to work in a different way, and that forces not only the teeth, but also
the mouth to RESHAPE. You have to use while you're awake because it works
because of the movements caused by swallowing the saliva and mostly talking.
It's a 24-hour speech therapy.
Because of his whole lecture ( I talked about it on the list some time
ago ), which I'm not reproducing here, I believe that's the best school. The
most logical, at least.
Best wishes,
Caio
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