Maintaining your balance is critical to not falling and injuring yourself. A recent article by Brenden Stack, D.D.S., M.S. and Anthony SIms, D.D.S. suggests there is a relationship with a persons posture, equilibrium, and the auriculotemporal nerve (sensory nerve to the TMJ) in patients that have disturbed gait and balance. Among the elderly, falls are the leading cause of death. They are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for traumatic brain injuries in the elderly. Twenty to thirty percent of those who fall, suffer moderate to severe injuries such as bruises, hip fractures, or head trauma’s. If you don’t injure yourself, you might also develop a fear of falling which will lead to limited activity, reduced mobility, and physical fitness and actually increase your actual risk of injuring yourself. Dizziness is the most common complaint in adults over the age of 75 which is the cause for them to seek treatment for dizziness more than hearing loss.
Balance is dependent upon vestibular function, vision, and proprioception to maintain posture, to navigate your surroundings, to coordinate movement of body parts, to perform fine motor movements, and to initiate appropriate nerve reflexes. These systems give our brain the information of head movement with respect to gravity to maintain balance. However, more than visual, vestibular, or just skeletal systems can contribute to balance disorders. It also has a dental system that may also contribute to balance disorders. Much like when the feet have flat arches that can cause back pain in an ascending direction. Jaws can cause pasture and balance changes down the body in a descending direction thru a complex nerve reflexes that are explained in his article. When all of these systems are coordinating properly with one another, the person will maintain equilibrium and balance, with proper gait, and posture.
By maintaining the proper vertical and horizontal relationships of the upper and lower jaw we can support the trigeminal nerve from getting too much stimulation to the cerebral cortex which can thus cause interference with normal conduction of impulses which can initiate involuntary movements that cause balance disorders. His conclusion is that we need to understand the trigeminal nerve which has effects upon an individual’s balance and gait. We are also seeing the trigeminal connection to Parkinson’s disease and Tourette’s disease which has typical diagnosis by a visual clinical exam.
You can visit his website: http://www.tmjstack.com/index.cfm and see for yourself the effects that the trigeminal nerve has on balance, posture, and gait. (Also the connection to parkinson’s and Tourette’s)
This relationship to bite problems is something that I see every day in my office. So if you have any questions or would like further information. Please feel free to email us.