Missing Link Owasso
Jaw Position and Its Role in Oral and Overall Health
At times, practicing medicine or dentistry is like being a detective. Successful care requires a careful assessment of the facts, the need to ask the right questions, and a willingness to try different approaches. As a patient, you may be all too familiar with that process. It can be frustrating at times, especially when doctors cannot quite seem to figure out the root cause of your symptoms. In many cases, the underlying issue is surprising; it could be the position of your jaw! Let’s look at a life story that illustrates this important point. After you read it, we invite you to request a consultation with our Owasso team so we can play a role in helping you find lasting relief.
Lisa’s Story
Lisa had visited seven doctors, including neurologists, primary care physicians, pain specialists, and even psychiatrists. Each one wanted to help, and they all tried something different. She tried medications for her migraines, muscle relaxers for her jaw, and anti-anxiety medication to release the tension in her chest. Sleep aids helped her on the nights when she simply could not drift off. Each treatment seemed effective for a while, but her symptoms always came back. Eventually, Lisa began to ask a heartrending question: “Why is this happening to me?” By the time she visited our team at Life Smiles Owasso, she was discouraged, confused, and on the brink of losing hope.
read moreLisa’s story is more common than you might think. Patients come to us from across the country with a slew of symptoms that seem unrelated, such as recurring migraines, pain behind the eyes, jaw clicking, neck and shoulder tension, anxiety, stomach problems, fatigue, morning brain fog, and more. Many of them have already visited multiple providers, undergone a battery of tests, and tried a range of treatments. Yet, they have not found the best solution.
This problem can arise because modern healthcare focuses on specialization, with many providers focusing on just one part of the body rather than considering it as a whole. The truth is, though, that everything is connected, and a holistic approach often works best. Indeed, the problem does not always start at the location of the pain. The pain may be just a signal that points to something deeper.
Introducing The Missing Link
Years of clinical experience and careful observation have revealed a pattern. Many patients with complex, chronic symptoms often had one thing in common: Instability in their jaw, bite, and upper airway. This system shares a direct connection to the brainstem, nervous system, respiratory system, posture, and overall muscular balance. At its center lies the trigeminal nerve.
As a general dentist who focuses on TMJ disorder, musculoskeletal conditions, and migraine headaches, I began to see something that changed the way I understood health. Over the past several years, I have had the privilege of seeing many patients referred to me by physicians and healthcare providers.
These patients had complex conditions — ADHD, POTS, complex regional pain syndrome, sympathetic overdrive, migraines, head and neck pain, and sleep apnea. On the surface, these conditions seemed unrelated, but eventually, as the same underlying imbalance was addressed, their symptoms began to improve. They achieved better sleep, fewer headaches, less anxiety, better posture, and better overall quality of life.
Lisa was one of those patients. After we treated her, her symptoms improved significantly, even to the point where her husband declared, “I got my wife back.”
Millions of people are just like Lisa — desperately searching for answers.
Therefore, my goal in sharing information is not to replace medicine or dentistry. Rather, I want to connect them! If you have been struggling with symptoms that your care providers cannot seem to figure out, if your treatments provided temporary results at best, rest assured that you are not alone! The answer might simply be The Missing Link.