I know there are many of you out there who suffer year after year. Here is a case of a mid 30’s woman who had been a basketball player in high school and a runner most of her life.
She had to quit basketball in high school because of knee pain that nobody could solve. She was still able to do some running, which she enjoyed, but as the years went on the pain would get worse the longer she ran.
By the time she came to see me the pain would hit at around the 1.5 mile mark.
IT Band (Iliotibial Band) pain occurs down by the knee. It’s a rubbing on the outer side of the knee. The problem is that most of the treatment is either directed to the painful area, or is directed to the IT Band itself.
Usually treatments are ultrasound, stretching of the IT Band and other forms of physical therapy designed to strengthen the area.
I won’t get into that, but I’ll tell you what fixed this woman’s problem in one visit…
She had wire dental retainers on both the top and bottom front teeth. This was severely restricting her cranial bone motion, which caused her pelvis to try to compensate. All the muscles I tested below the waist were in a neurologically inhibited state.
All those years and nobody bothered to test the function of the muscles.
What made them strong (neurologically facilitated) again? Putting pressure on the wire dental retainer.
She felt the immediate change in her muscles and decided to make an appointment with the orthodontist to get the wires removed.
Within a week she ran more than 4 miles with ZERO pain.
The only reason she stopped at 4 miles was because she was home. And the only reason she didn’t run that day or the next was because she was busy. The change would have been immediate.
To say she was stunned was an understatement.
And she realized that she started to get the knee pain shortly after the braces were put on way back in her childhood. Her basketball career was most likely cut short by the pressure that was put on her skull.
I had to do some cranial adjusting to further release the restrictions and she is doing fantastic.
Now, this doesn’t happen to everybody. Some people can get orthodontic braces and have no problems. Yet again, I’ve seen many that do get problems.
The key is to make sure the skull is moving properly the entire time and to do the proper testing. You have to make sure the pressure and restriction of the braces and retainers is not impairing some other part of the body.
The most common problems I see are with the lower body and the neck.
Note: I never tell patients to get their permanent wire dental retainers removed. I show them what is happening to their neuromuscular system before and after stimulation to the retainer. They make their own decisions. And if they do choose to get them removed, I always tell them to wear the plastic retainers at night to preserve their orthodontic investment. All three of my children had braces as well!