More and more our community is looking for the "silver bullet" of health. Every second Tv ad suggests a drug to "fix" any health health imaginable. Wouldn't it be great if your body could indicate its level of health and function? It can! This description explains the point of your jaw, how a straightforward self-test can indicate your functional status and what you can do to achieve "true health".
Trigger Finger Surgery
Move your jaw side to side in a sawing action. Did it pop or click on one side? Can you move it more to one side than the other? Are you unable to fit your four fingers stacked vertically (no overlapping!) in your mouth? When you bite down does one side perceive before the other? Chances are you tested inescapable in one or more of these tests for jaw imbalance and if you did, you need to read on!
The jaw joint or the temporomandibular joint (Tmj) can be a source of ache for many people. Tmj Disorder (Tmjd) or Tmj Syndrome and has been associated with a wide variety of other symptoms, some far removed from the jaw itself, for example persisting headaches, sinus problems, optic disturbances, ringing and pain in the ears, facial pain, tingling and dullness in the fingers and even low back pain.
Even more interestingly, Tmjd has been associated with Fibromyalgia, persisting Fatigue Syndrome and depression. Scientists and medical studies have been unable to explain the connection of Tmjd to such a wide variety of dysfunctional conditions affecting both body and mind.
This may be because "scientists" overlook two indisputable facts when they look at human health.
First, the body and mind are one - a particular unit associated together from head to toe via joints, muscle and connective tissue called fascia (remember the song, "The leg bone associated to the knee bone..."?).
Second, form follows function. So any "weak links" that cause structural imbalance in one part of the body will change throughout the body, decreasing its form and therefore its entire function also. For example, compensating for a broken toe may ultimately work its way up to the neck and yes, even the jaw.
To be truly wholesome is to have good function, which dictates that your form or posture must be good also. The pain, the symptoms associated with Tmjd and even the Tmjd itself are simply manifestations of dyfunction resulting from postural imbalance.
So why is the jaw a good example to demonstrate your level of health and function? Because it is top joint in the body and the last area your body can compensate for postural imbalances transferring up from lower down. Also since the jaw is associated to the skull, we can actually espy dysfunction like muscle tightness, pain, popping or clicking.
Another suspect to test the jaw is because the alignment of the mandible (jaw bone) can sway the pituitary gland in the brain. The pituitary gland is carefully "the scholar gland" and is chiefly responsible for maintaining your body in a healthy, internally balanced state called homeostasis.
Lets trace the links to the pituitary. Keep reading and you'll learn the underground to "true health".
The mandible is associated to a bone in your skull called the sphenoid with muscles called the medial and lateral pterygoids. The sphenoid houses the pituitary gland in a small depression called the sella turcica. So any structural imbalance in the Tmj from drive differences in the pterygoids will change structural imbalance to the sphenoid, which will then compromise the function of the pituitary and homeostasis.
Now it might be easy to think that if you can definite the imbalance in the jaw with a bite plate or some surgical policy you would fix the Tmjd and be as wholesome as a horse right? Wrong! This approach is doomed to fail because the jaw is also associated to the shoulders and sternum.
The mandible is associated to the shoulders and sternum via a bone just above the level of the Adam's apple called the hyoid bone. The hyoid is a "floating bone" and unlike any other bone in the body in that it does not perceive other bones; rather it is suspended above and below by muscles. Its main function is to act as an anchor for the muscles that connect the mandible to the hyoid. These muscles are called suprahyoid muscles and act to open or pull the mandible down.
But wait! Muscles called the infrahyoid muscles connect the hyoid to both shoulder blades and the sternum. Their function is to anchor the hyoid in a level, "neutral" position, which is difficult because any unevenness in shoulders height or slouching will unbalance the hyoid and therefore the jaw and pituitary.
The shoulders and upper back are you guessed it, associated to the lower back and pelvis, which will only be as balanced as the "core" muscles allows them to be. The core is a system of muscles in the trunk and hip region like the glutes (butt) and abdominals that act as the body's foundation by stabilizing the pelvis and low back.
The jaw tests you tried earlier can now be looked at as indicators of the status of your core since all posture and function originates here.
So now the jaw reveals it's secret: "True health can only be achieved when the drive of the muscles of the core is balanced and the posture realigned.
Is it potential that to thrive both physically and mentally could be this simple?
Yes! We like complex things and to make things complicated. We have been conditioned to think that complex drugs and surgery are the sass to our health problems. They're not.
That being said restoring equilibrium to the core is not easy. Here's why.
Your brain like all animals is hardwired for survival so it favors using mobilizing muscles that cause gross movement to move your body out of danger. Stabilizing muscles like the core muscles are less likely to be favored and more likely to come to be weaker since they oppose movement.
The mobilizing muscles now have to work overtime. They compensate by tightening since they have to achieve their own function plus that of the weak stabilizing muscles too. Compensating muscles cannot achieve both jobs effectively so muscle drive and length imbalances found causing postural imbalances. A first-rate example is the hamstring muscles tightening in response to gluteus maximus weakness.
Compensation is a great technique to help you run away from a hungry lion but complicates things when you try to way the root problem of core weakness. So it doesn't matter how much "core training" you do, you will most likely just expand the tight mobilizing muscles and engrain the imbalances even more - like driving your car with bad wheel alignment.
So what is the solution to accessing the weak core muscles and reestablishing the body's function? Wouldn't it be great if there were some technique that could "activate" and expand the weak core muscles?
The good news is there is a technique called Myotonix that does exactly that. It is a form of hand-operated therapy based on the system and techniques of acupressure, osteopathy and trigger point therapy and to improve posture. The results are instantaneous and astounding.
This description has highlighted the point of jaw function as an indicator of whole body function and how dysfunction in any one part of the body affects the whole. Total body health will only be realized when we recognize the connection of our form to our function. So with this knowledge, the next time you go to your dentist you can tell him the health underground of his jaw!
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