TEETH AND POSTURE: AN UNEXPECTED RELATIONSHIP, BUT NARROW
Always we study the correlation between bad-occlusion disorders and seemingly distant, such as headache, stiff neck, dizziness, tinnitus, neck pain, scoliosis, low back pain and sciatica. The experience, as well as continuous and specific training courses have led us to develop a comprehensive view of the patient’s health, never considered only as “his mouth”, but as a whole person.
To ensure harmony total organism, where necessary (because there always is), we collaborate with several specialists such as ENT, orthopedic, orthoptists, osteopaths and chiropractors.
The idea underlying medical is to act on the cause and not the symptom: in order to avoid a repeated recurrence of pain in question.
Here is an interview of Dr. Scarpa “Mouth healthy for a healthy body”: Link to article of Class.
POSTUROLOGY
WHAT POSTURE?
Posture is the position that the various parts of the body take to maintain the optimal balance: stand, sit, turn your eyes and head, walk, run …
WHAT IS POSTUROLOGY?
In the last thirty years the Posture (as a branch cross audiology, podiatry, kiropratica, dentistry, orthopedics, physical medicine and ophthalmology), has developed to the point of take on the characteristics of a true super-specialties with a patient’s vision non-sectoral, but total.
The main feature is the fact posturology interdisciplinarity: simultaneously touches all disciplines already mentioned, and sets a therapy finally acting on the causes and not just the pain-symptom. His goal is studying the system tonic-postural, investigate and correct the dysfunctions causal, so remove them permanently.
From the perspective of dentistry, the idea is that it is essential to note the mouth in relation to the rest of the body. It turns out that when the occlusion of the jaw is not perfect, the muscles that regulate the movements of the temporomandibular joint does not work well. Even a shift of a few millimeters of a dental arch relative to the other (in particular during swallowing) may cause symptoms insistent and annoying. This can cause an imbalance of the muscles of the mouth, neck and column. These deviations may lead to a “simple” generalized discomfort (often in the form of chronic fatigue) or to a real painful symptomatology to the various districts of the body.
HOW POSTURE AND TEETH ARE CONNECTED?
The teeth sometimes intervene on posture because they can produce tension in the muscle district cranio-cervical tensions which then propagate to all the muscles of the spine. Symptoms indicative are many: headaches, facial pain, balance disorders, neck pain, stiff neck, pain in the shoulders, arms, back, legs and knees.
To diagnose with certainty that a disease of the mouth may be the cause of pain in various parts of the body, we need a dental visit posturology.
The causes of pain can be many:
MALAOCCLUSIONE: when the mating of the two dental arches is not perfect, or when their mating conflicts with the temporomandibular joint, the masticatory muscle groups will find themselves in a state of imbalance. This imbalance, with time, also extend to the muscles that determine the posture, also causing deviations of the spinal column.
DYSFUNCTION OF SWALLOWING: incorrect swallowing can cause problems in many parts of the body. It is a problem far less frequent malaocclusione.
REATTOGENI TEETH: teeth that have various diseases such as granulomas, pulp necrosis or outbreaks. All this leads to a situation of general weakness in the muscles of certain body parts.
WHAT IS ORTHODONTICS POSTURAL?
Orthodontics, in the context of postural, is regarded as closely related to general physiological structure of the patient.
There are four pillars of orthodontics postural:
Dynamic concept of occlusion: the diagnosis derives from the structural to the functional.
The observation of three-dimensional, all planes of space, it is essential for a complete diagnosis.
A correct diagnosis can be established only by extending the medical observation over the stomatognathic system (mouth and jaw joint) should be considered also all parts of the body and posture. It should be emphasized that the malaocclusione, even if the observable level dental, general conditions may be caused by the organism, extra-Stomatognathic.
Multidisciplinary: When you highlight other dysfunctions, out of his mouth, that affect your posture, you have the amount of collaboration and dialogue with other specialists (for example, the audiologist, chiropractor, podiatrist, osteopath …)
HOW IS DIVIDED THE VISIT Orthodontic-POSTURAL AND WHAT ARE THE TREATMENT RECOMMENDED?
It begins, as usual, with the history: collects information on previous physiological and pathological conditions of the patient, family and personal. It continues with a visit of the mouth: special attention is paid, in addition to aesthetics, the dynamic function of the two jaws, the temporomandibular joint and associated muscles. Then, you come to visit postural general, where we make use of special tools such as scoliosis, the podoscope, examining stabilometry and kinesiological tests postural. At this point, the doctor will perform the study cephalometric: a set of operations aimed at measuring angular and linear volume cephalic, made on teleradiografia. In particular, these operations are three: the path of Ricketts, the route with postural analysis of relationships cranio-cervical, and examination of anatomical structures joints. Following the examination of the models of the dental arches, which assess the symmetries, the positions of the teeth and the occlusion; always with a functional and aesthetic. Finally, if necessary, they will adopt personalized therapies.