Dr Bob and I have been practicing integrative care for our entire careers. One of the things that has been fascinating for us dentists (and frustrating for patients) is how common muscle and fascial pain is when diagnosing a dental problem. It can be confounding to both us and the patients when we could swear a tooth is the source of consistent pain, and then we take the time to identify that a muscle or bite imbalance is truly at the heart of it all. A struggle we use to have is: how do we rule out muscle pain in the face of a tooth or teeth that seem destined for root canal or extraction?
Over the years, we discivered that a simple-to-make dental appliance helps patients (and us) quickly identify muscles as the source of trouble. I would say that 25-30% of all sore teeth would be misdiagnosed without this piece of low-budget technology. The appliance? The QuickSplint.
Confronting facial pain when you are in the midst of it is really difficult. But just remember that us dental pros over here at Lyons Creek Dental Care are integrative in nature. We take the time to identify muscle function, jaw position, spinal posture, breathing cycle, headache history, even speech and swallowing patterns when we start diagnosing your issues. And the QuickSplint has been instrumental in the process.
The gang over at QuickSplint has a new website dedicated to informing patients about the nature of facial pain and how to treat it. Check out www.facemypain.com. And call us 206.362.5400 at Lyons Creek to schedule an appointment!
