ok, so I just got back from a trip to the dentist followed up by a visit to my chiropracter.
I should start with this: I have broken my jaw three times. The first time, I was in grade school and got high sticked in the face during field hockey. We went to the dentist and he said that it was still aligned and would heal on its own. The second time, I was playing soccer in high school. Long story short there was a fight and I ended up on the ground and a girl kicked me in the face. That time, my face was visibly crooked but we went to the dentist and he said that it would set just fine. At the time, I was an incredibly angry teen and hated getting attention for my looks and much preferred a crooked face and fought with my mom about getting a second opinion. If only I had known what havoc a mis-aligned jaw can do to the body.
The third time I broke my jaw, I was in college, drunk and got into a fight and got my face kicked in.
By that time, I was already so sick with undiagnosed Lyme's Disease that it took everything that I had to get through the day and simply scheduling an appointment (Lyme takes out the executive function of the brain and makes you a stranger to yourself and makes doing even small tasks practically impossible) let alone getting to one, was out of my reach.
So there you go, three major jaw traumas.
Let's back up a bit. Jaw trauma and it healed so whatever, right? that is what I thought for years! but the thing is, the jaw is super important and affects so much of the body. The jaw and pelvis are closely related as they are directly linked by fascia (the deep front line), sit at opposite ends of the spine, have similar structure and often mirror each other in misalignment and tension. With either or both the jaw and pelvis out of alignment, then the spine will be too, because the body adapts however it needs to to keep the eyes and brain level to the ground.
I ended up working with a new dentist years after all these injuries. I only went because one of my Lyme doctors said that I would never fully heal as long as my jaw was so out of alignment. His theory is that, if the jaw, spine and pelvis are chronically out of alignment, then the neurological system can never function to full potential. By the time I went to see Dr. Hites, my jaw had slide left by a full half inch. In response to its new placement, one of my cervical vertebrate kept sliding out of alignment, my thoracic locked up often and my low back hurt all the time. Of course, I didn't know that when I first went to see him.
Over the past years, I have been outfitted with a series of different mouth guards, retainers and appliances to stabilize my jaw, open up my palate and the left side of my jaw. Within the first month, my neck stabilized and my thoracic released. With assistance from an osteopath and a physical therapist, I re-aligned--and held the re-alignment--my pelvis and my low back pain is all but gone.
It's been incredible to experience the systemic release of tension and pain.
