Villain #2

All right…here it is…after discovering The Intubated Head and Neck Syndrome as a huge contributing factor in human disease, pain and suffering, I have decided that I found the second most villainest villain in all the history of villainy to be… the…dentist…

Most doctors studying the development of the head and neck focus on the first 3 cervical vertebrae because their structure are significantly different for different functions. These neck bones form from different parts. As they mature, these parts fuse to form permanent solid adult bony structure. On average, stages of fusion occur at 3, 5 and 7 years of age…The dental associations now have a pediatric dental subspecialty. Pediatric dentists say that children should start their first dental exam at around 3 years of age. Supposing their primary teeth are rotted out because of milk bottle caries, it is so bad that they want/have to do baby root canals and other procedures…So these kids are anesthetized, their heads and necks are positioned for ease and convienence of the dentist to access and yank, tug, drill, etc. Their undeveloped brain and spinal cord, once they wake up, are now reset to a hyperextended head and neck position as being “normal.” They grow up not knowing any different. Until they age, have sports injuries, head injuries, get into car accidents, have babies and one day the wake up with a migraine, or have symptoms of a herniated disc. Then they have chronic pain for which the CMS prescribe meds, injections or surgeries. If they seek nonmeds, nonconventional options they have massage, deep tissue massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, PT, other types of “bodyworkers” whose imprecise hands at best help the injuries peripherally and at worst, imparts additional force and strain. it is unfortunate but the conventional medical system does not take into account all these procedures as injuries loaded onto and straining a system. even worse still, osteopathic medical education does not teach us this either. i had to come to this understanding on my own 13 years after becoming a pediatrician. In effect, these injuries are permanently embedded because no one in the world recognizes them as such. Even now that i am shouting out to the world the insidious pernicious dangers, the public may take heed, but to find an osteopathic physician who can undo them is pretty much close to impossible (other than me).

I am increasingly skeptical and cynical that human health and preventative services really serve to improve over health conditions. Maybe what we should do is practice common sense traditional ways of raising our children, eating whole unprocessed diets, staying in an active lifestyle and then waiting for problems to show up and then only intervening when they are severe. Maybe we should continue to be ever skeptical, cynical and vigilant against guilds and professional ‘trade associations’ and their proclamations of ‘preventative visits’ as a means of early intervention in the service of mankind.

This week, one of my old established patients came in for a minor eye infection. I had not seen her in a few months. In the meantime she completed the first phase of braces, which is palate expansion. i looked at the way her head sat on her first cervical vertebrae and her chin and nose seemed angulated/cocked upwards…Her head and neck thought that she was still sitting in that dental chair. I watched her through the visit and she and her mother were unaware. We discussed the problem but the parent reported that the dentists really want to get these corrections done early before dental permanence…but lets consider their rationale…the trade off then would be imparting changes in the head and neck and locking those injuries in permanently…

Yes…i am now an anti-dentite. My kids are 5 and 3.5 years. So what if their primary teeth have cavities? Those teeth would have to be rotted before i take them in. I am going to try to not take them in until they are 10 years old at least. Yeah, I know, some people are going to say…hmmm…bad mommy…well…i will just have to tolerate it quietly to myself…because i do know better…hopefully you will consider this for yourself and your family.

Update: It is 7 months later and my work on a daily basis, confirms my this post and my feeling that we are doing much too much, much too soon…this is something I label “The Dental Chest.” All you men out there who look at yourselves in the mirror, while you are showering, and wonder but have never thought to ask, “Doctor, why is my chest caved in?” Well, now at least this doctor will read your mind and provide you with some insight. Concomittant with sunken in chest, the structure of the rib cage is such that the lower ribs flare out and appear raised (when you lay down) and down the middle of the rib cage there is a narrowing. These are adaptations to the strain in the neck caused by the insidious dental positioning. Unfortunately, there are also long term alterations to the drainage of the veins in your skull. When I see this in my patients, I am always horrified at how heavy the head is and even more so by the fact that you patients are unaware of it. So yes guys, if this sounds and looks like you, I can predict that you had a lot of dental work and/or braces in your teenage years. The good news is that this is fixable, your body wants to change. The bad news is…they don’t teach this to us in school…you will have to find a good DO osteopathic physician who can understand this post and fix it for you.

This is Jason’s sternum. Note the depression in the middle of his chest. His sternum is caved in and sunken.

Here is Jason’s chest. I call it The Dental Chest. He had braces for 3 years in his mid teens.