Last time you heard from
me I wrote my first race report in almost four years. Would you believe me
if I told you that the driving force behind my return to the pool was my mouth?
To extract, or not to extract,
that is the question. Remember this?
Shortly after I ripped
off Shakespeare in the post referenced above, and seriously contemplated
getting at least one of my root canalled teeth pulled, my friend Erin informed
me that she had been going to an integrative dentist for over ten years whom
she trusts with her life, and encouraged me to get a second opinion since he
has experience with Lyme disease patients. So I did. And now this is where
everything gets a little weird.
Based on the reception I
received when I walked into the office and announced my arrival, it is safe to
say that my friend Erin is a major celebrity in the eyes of all the staff that
she has come in contact with in the practice. After getting hugged by a handful
of people and being told how wonderful my hair and my friend Erin
are, I discussed my concerns about the recommendation I received to extract my
root canalled teeth with the dentist. After performing his own round of muscle
testing on me he made the following recommendation. “Keep your teeth for the
time being, extracting them can cause additional issues and I don’t see an
immediate need to do so. What I really want to focus on is the high levels of
mercury and aluminum in your body and your TMJ.
If anybody is keeping
track, this is now the third time that a practitioner has done muscle testing
on me in the last year or so without knowing the results of my blood work and
has accurately detected the high levels of mercury and aluminum that I can't
seem to get rid of. Fingers crossed that during my next round of blood work
there is improvement on that front.
TMJ
The temporomandibular
joint (TMJ) is a hinge that connects your jaw to the temporal bones of your
skull, which are in front of each ear. It lets you move your jaw up and down
and side to side, so you can talk, chew, and yawn. Problems with your jaw and
the muscles in our face that control it are known as temporomandibular
disorders (TMD), but many people (like me) call it TMJ after the joint. TMJ can
be caused by injury to your jaw, the joint, the muscles to your head and neck,
grinding or clenching your teeth, arthritis in the joint and stress
which can cause you to tighten your facial muscles or clench your
teeth. TMJ can cause severe pain and discomfort which can be temporary or
last for many years. It can affect one or both sides of your face. Symptoms
include pain or tenderness in your face, jaw joint area, neck and shoulders,
and in or around your ear when you chew, speak, or open your mouth.
Some people experience jaws that get stuck or lock in the open or closed mouth
position and others experience clicking, popping, or grating sounds in the jaw
joint when they chew or open and close their mouths. The list goes on and
on.
When the dentist
mentioned TMJ I was surprised since this was the first time in my
life that anybody told me I had TMJ. I always thought it had to do with lock
jaw, and that is one issue which I have ever experienced. I expressed doubt and in
turn he highlighted the muscle weakness on the left side of my body caused by
my TMJ and told me some bizarre news about my tongue.
First he began by
stating that before he started his examination he could tell by talking to me
that the left side of my body was much weaker than my right. I could have
told him that too since I am right handed and have always been stronger on my right
side. He then performed a resistance test on my extended arms by pushing on my
wrists and asking me to maintain their position. And like any right side
dominant person, my right arm didn't move and my left arm dipped considerably.
After a few variations on the arm resistance test, he pinpointed the exact spot
on the left side of my neck which causes me a great deal of discomfort on a
daily basis and then made the following statement: "Not all of your pain
and discomfort is caused by inflammation from the Lyme disease. Some of it is
structural and is caused by your TMJ. I can fix that". He then handed
me one of those firm cylinder shaped cotton balls that dentists use to keep
your lip from touching your teeth during cleanings, and asked me to place it
between my molars in the back of my mouth on the left side and to bite down. He
then did another round of the same resistance testing which yielded no
difference between my right and left arms in terms of strength and no neck pain
in the spot on the left side of my neck. In fact, where my muscles and tendons
are usually very tight and can be strummed like guitar strings, they were quite
relaxed and it felt great. Once the cotton ball was removed the same round of
resistance testing was performed again and the muscle weakness and neck issues were
present once more. He then asked me if I felt a difference when I swallowed
with the cotton ball in my mouth. When I shook my head no, he told me that in
order to swallow my tongue had to do acrobatics in my mouth because of the
issue with my jaw. I am sure the look on my face was priceless. I had no idea
what he meant and I can assure you that my tongue is not an acrobat. All of
this seemed very bizarre, yet I was intrigued by the cotton ball in my mouth
that had temporarily fixed my neck and muscular issues on the left side of my
body, so agreed to get fitted for a splint.
The Splint
A "splint" is
a removable dental appliance used to balance the muscles and ligaments of the
head, neck, shoulders and jaw joints. It is designed to fit over the biting
surfaces of the lower teeth and guide the jaws into a functional, comfortable,
and relaxed position. It can also reduce jaw pain and damage to the teeth by
providing a cushion of protection as it helps reduce clenching and grinding of
the teeth and jaws during the day and night. The splint requires functional
adjustments as the condition of the muscles, ligaments and nerves of the head,
neck, and shoulders and back change and improve.
- My feet stopped falling asleep on the elliptical machine. One of the many reasons I do not like the elliptical machine, is that within five minutes of being on it, my feet fall asleep. Three days into my splint wearing experience I was on the elliptical machined consumed with thoughts of my sore jaw when I started to get a tiny hint of pins in needles in my middle toe on my right foot. It was a weird feeling since it was just a pinpointed spot and not both of my entire feet. As I glanced at the clock to see how long I had been on the machine I almost stopped dead in my tracks. I had gone twenty-five minutes without both of my feet falling asleep. At first I thought it was silly to think that somehow the splint that I had been wearing for only three days had something to do with it, but during subsequent trips to the gym, the results were the same.
- Within a week of wearing the splint, the left side of my neck felt decent enough for me to start swimming again, which led to this.
- This past August I wrote about my experience with neurofeedback and I owe you a follow-up on my progress, but that is not what I am about to discuss. Today I would like to explain how my nuerofeedback sessions helped shed some light on my crazy tongue. Previously I mentioned that a minute long base line of my brainwaves is captured at the beginning of each session. For a long time, the doctor thought I was having muscle spasms during my sessions due to the fact that during both the base line capture and throughout my sessions, there were random disruptions of my brainwaves that came and went very quickly which had nothing to do with what I was watching. During the sessions I am not able to see my brainwaves being recorded, but during the minute long baseline I am able to watch the screen. Early on I realized it wasn't muscle spasms causing the interruptions in the monitoring of my brainwaves, it was me swallowing. But I never really thought anything of it. Once I began wearing the splint, all of that stopped. As it turns out my tongue is an acrobat after all.
Every four weeks I would
go to the dentist to get the splint adjusted. The first time I went back for an
adjustment I asked the dentist if it was possible that the splint was
responsible for my feet not falling asleep on the elliptical machine. He said yes.
And then I mentioned there was one spot on my right foot where I was still
experiencing pins and needles when on the elliptical. He put one of his fingers
in my mouth and did muscle testing with his free hand, and when he came to the
tooth which caused weakness in my muscles he took the splint out of my mouth,
shaved off an area on the splint corresponding to that tooth, and put it back
in my mouth. And that solved the foot thing once and for all. These types of adjustments went on for a while. Sometimes I would arrive with random pain in my hips, knees or shoulders and a simple adjustment to
the splint, would do the trick (I am sure more goes in to this than what I just explained, but I am not a dentist I am just the patient). One evening as I was sitting down to eat dinner
a thought flashed through my head as I realized my teeth on the right side of
my mouth were touching in places they never touched before and my teeth on
the left side weren't even touching when the splint was out of my
mouth. I kept my thought to myself for a bit and then one day I mustered up the
courage to ask the dentist if the next step to getting my jaw to rest in the
proper place was moving my teeth. And now this brings me to the one complaint
about the splint that I mentioned earlier. I now have braces for the second
time in my life. And they are making me cranky.
To the right you will find one of 44 sets of invisalign trays that I will be cycling
through every two weeks until my trays run out. I no longer wear the splint as
I have trays for both the top and bottom of my mouth. In theory invisalign is
pretty awesome. They take molds of your teeth and send them off to the company so the aligner trays can be created per the plans from your dentist.
The trays gradually shift your teeth in to place as you switch them out
according to schedule. They even send you a cool 3D view of your mouth which
shows beginning to end views of the process. There are no metal brackets or
wires that need to be tightened. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? The first two weeks consisted of me having a lisp again and drooling a lot. And of course my teeth were very sore. Much like the splint, I wear the trays all of the time except when I am eating. The great thing about the trays is that they really are invisible unless you are standing really close to me and studying my mouth. Every time I change trays I get a headache for a couple of days and my teeth get incredibly sore, hence my crankiness. After those couple of days pass, I don't realize how sore my teeth are until I take the trays out in order to eat. The trays fit like a glove, and sometimes it is a struggle to remove them.
Four weeks ago when I went to get new trays they put "buttons" on some of my teeth. Buttons are kind of like plastic brackets. They are glued to certain teeth, according to the plan and they make the trays fit tighter to add to your discomfort. Well most likely they aid in faster movement. This past Monday I went back to the dentist to get more trays and was surprised with some new hardware. Two metal hooks were glued to the side of my back left and right molars and now I have rubber bands that connect from my molars to my k9 teeth. In the new set of trays there are special notches located on the top of my k9 teeth to accommodate the rubber bands. While the trays may be invisible, the rubber bands are not. I am thinking about getting some brightly colored rubber bands just for the heck of it.
Tomorrow is November 25th. You know what that means, right? Four years since my Lyme disease treatment began. This past summer I was doing very well and it seemed as if I had turned a corner. I am bummed to report that I have taken a giant step backwards in my recovery. Or maybe just two small steps back. Or perhaps I am stepping sideways. I really don't know. What I do know is that in about two years, my teeth are going to be very straight.
Happy Thanksgiving!
