Whistler Dental

Optimal Dental Physiology is a dental treatment philosophy which looks beyond just the teeth as far as dental issues which concern a patient's over-all health.  Optimal Dental Physiology takes into consideration, not just the teeth , but also the TMJ (joints) , the muscles of the head and neck , as well as the airway.

Once a deeper understanding of the inter-relationship between these four pillars of oral health is embraced , it becomes obvious how important the health of the teeth are to the airway , AND  how important the airway is to the health of the teeth.  The teeth and the airway are so intimately related , it is impossible to treat one with-out affecting the other. 

The paradigm of dental disease needs to change.  Currently our dental model of dental diseases centers around diet , sugar, and caries .  This model may hold true with young children and adolescents  but the majority of dental  problems that  I've observed over the last decade with adults are related to malocclusions ( broken down bites).  Broken down bites are an inevitable  result of  the way dental services are delivered in our society.  Fix a tooth here , fix a tooth there.  One this year , one next year.  This results in continually fixing teeth to a broken down or pathological occlusion.  As the bite is breaking down so are the TMJ's.  The TMJ's are joints not unlike any other joint in the body.  As we age they are subjected to wear.  As the bite wears or breaks down , the TMJ's wear/ break down.  When  the joints start to click and pop , it is a sign of the joint dysfunctioning as a result of this wear.  Sometimes it can be a result of trauma but this is more rare.  More often the dysfunction is a result of occlusal breakdown. ( breakdown of the bite)

As the occlusion breaks down and the joints wear out the position of the mandible is affected.  The position is almost always moved back and up.  Positioning the mandible back and up results in more pressure on the joints often resulting in myriad symptoms such as pain, ringing ears, dizzyness, vertigo.  Migraines are often a result of muscle spasm from a mal-positioned mandible.

These symptoms are often described as TMD (temporomandibular joint dysfunction), or MPDS(myofacial-pain-dysfunction syndrome).  Another common symptom of this condition is forward head posture.  Patients with TMJ dysfunction often have forward head posture resulting in muscle spasms and pain in the neck and shoulders.   Sometimes the pain will even radiate to the lower back.  The symptoms of this syndrome are many, and most often the patient has no idea that the teeth are the source of the problem.  Most often the Dentist will look in the mouth at the teeth and state " you grind your teeth and need a night guard".  Even though this may be true, by the time the patient is getting severe symptoms it is too late for intervention to be this simple.  By the time symptoms start to get so severe as to be noticable to most patients,  much damage is done.  Damage to the teeth, resulting in broken and missing teeth, root canals, crowns and a worn out bite or occlusion.    Damage to the TMJ 's, resulting in damaged condyles and worn out disc's.

The teeth can be fixed, usually at great cost as it requires a full mouth re-habilitation.  But the damage to the TMJ's is irrepairable.  Once bony damage is done to the condyles and once the disc is perforated or worse,  this damage is permanent and cannot easily be repaired.  It cannot be repaired simple like an ACL in the knee.  And the resulting symptoms that go with the damaged TMJ's may be permanent.

The last pillar is the airway.  As the teeth and TMJ's are breaking down , the position of the mandible is changing and the airway is being compromised.  This component is not noticeable during waking hours because the human body is so good at accomodating changes to the human condition.  However at night when the body is going thru the different stages of sleep  getting ready for REM sleep (which the body absolutely needs to flourish ) the airway with the rest of the body is getting more and more relaxed,  until the airway starts to collapse.  At this stage the patient is often snoring loudly and the % concentration of oxygen in the blood is decreasing.  Sometimes the airway closes completely and the patient awakes with a snort and goes back to the early stages of sleep and the cycle starts over.  So what's so bad about this?  As this is going on ... all night in many cases,  the heart rate is racing and the blood pressure is soaring putting a tremendous load on the cardiovascular system.  Also,  as the % oxygen in the blood is falling damage is being done to the oxygen sensitive tissues in the body.  The 2 MOST sensitive tissues to low oxygen levels being the BRAIN and the RETINA's.  I have no reservations in saying that the risk to damaging these tissues is VERY REAL. 

To close the loop and get back to "Optimal Dental Physiology".  The objective in treating patients with this philosophy is to maintain the teeth, and joints and muscles in optimal health as to properly support the airway to maintain blood oxygen levels over 95% all night long.  When this is occurring, patients sleep thru the entire night with-out waking, with-out snoring, and  they wake up in the morning feeling well rested ready to meet the day!  This is healthy for the heart and healthy for the brain.