Braces Can Twist Your Skull and Spine

Did you know if you or your child are being treated with braces to straighten your teeth that the mechanical treatment may be twisting your skull bones and spine?

99.9% of dentists have no clue what the forces being generated by the braces are doing to your head and spine. Unfortunately, orthodontists have no training in cranial evaluation. When patients complain of headaches, balance issues, neck or lower back pain problems immediately following an adjustment to the braces, the dentist ignores the complaint because he or she has no knowledge of the impact the forces have on your skull or spine. The forces applied to your maxilla have the potential to distort your brain, skull bones, upper three cervical vertebrae, your spine and coccyx bone. Any twisting of the skull will directly affect the entire dural membrane system to cause neck and lower back pain, disequilibrium, headaches or facial pain. Your orthodontist has no way of monitoring the changes they are making to your skull when they tighten your braces.

Case in point. When Greg was 15 to 17 years-old, he had rapid palatal expansion, braces and headgear treatment to straighten his teeth. In his early twenties he had all four of his wisdom teeth removed because the headgear forced the upper molars backward eliminating the space for his wisdom teeth to erupt. The extractions were the final straw that literally broke the camel’s back. He developed insomnia, sciatic pain, numbness down his left leg, lumbar disc degeneration, difficulty in walking, and fatigue issues. Greg consulted dentists, physicians, orthodontists, oral surgeons from around the world but nobody had a rational approach to resolve his pain and dysfunction.

When Greg was evaluated I diagnosed an under active thyroid, which proved to be one of his major causes for structural instability. Thyroid treatment was necessary to prevent stressing out the gland with mechanical forces. Patients tend to fall apart if just mechanical orthodontic treatment is started first. Use of Advanced Lightwire Functional appliances removed the twists in his skull and conventional braces totally resolved his remaining structural distortions. Greg was totally pain free following treatment. The take-away message is that orthodontists have no way of monitoring the effects the forces generated by the braces are having on the skull bone alignment. Just ask your orthodontist how they are monitoring your skull bones during treatment and then watch the blank look on their face.