Experience the Difference

Zig Ziglar once said that there is something that millions of Chinese schoolchildren can do that you and I can't. Namely, speak Chinese! That doesn't make them smarter than us, it just demonstrates that they have had different experiences than us.

Recently I was visited by a young adult from Minnesota who was interested in Invisalign. She had been to a dental school in Minn. in hopes of getting her teeth straightened, but was left undecided after hearing the differing opinions of the dentists at the school. There are many smart people teaching in professional schools, but there are as many different ways to approach dental problems as there are dentists.

After evaluating this young lady, I realized there was more to her problem than just straightening her teeth. The confounding situation for the dentists who had seen her before was that she had developed a compensating bite, commonly referred to as a "Sunday bite". She would push her lower jaw out forward so it looked like she had a better bite relationship than she actually did. Her teeth did not fit well together in this position, but because of having done this for so many years, her teeth didn't fit well together in a retruded position either. Consequently, she was getting headaches and jaw aches frequently.

From my experience, I know that orthodontic treatment could be the attempted treatment for this, OR it could seal the deal on capturing this problem for a long time. From my experience, I felt that she first needed to have her jaw joint and muscles neutralized and in harmony, and then her bite stabilized in some position before beginning Invisalign treatment.

Invisalign is on hold temporarily, and she has been started on NTI appliance therapy. I met the inventor of the NTI appliance Jim Boyd, DDS years ago while attending a dental conference with him in Hawaii. I remember Jim making this appliance for other attendees who had headaches daily. The next day at the seminar, these people were interviewed and explained that the majority of their headache and neckache problems had dissipated almost immediately.

Now, this NTI appliance is a good treatment, but not for all cases. Dentists still need the experience to know when it will help, or when it could cause more difficulty.

I recieved an email yesterday that our patient is having changes for the better almost immediately. She wore the appliance on her way home to Minn. while driving, and told her mother that she already was feeling positive differences. I'll see her again in a couple of months, and hopefully we can start to stabilize her bite and eventually get her the straight teeth she wants.

More later, as the story develops.