Is Your Misaligned Bite Causing Your Vertigo and Dizziness

By Maribel Vann, DDS

A 56 year-old woman, who just completed her orthodontic treatment, came in for a consultation regarding her symptoms. Her chief complaints were vertigo, which was triggered when she moves her head from side to side and dizziness. This made her stop driving.

Other symptoms were

Loss of balance

Pain on the left side of the neck and jaw

Frequent stiff neck and shoulders

Clicking on the left TMJ

Buzzing and ringing in the ears

Tingling and numbness of the hands

Upper and lower back pain

Photo A shows the upper and lower dental midlines are not lined up. The upper jaw is deviated to the left, and the lower jaw is deviated to the right.

The front view x-ray of her skull (photo B) shows the floor of the nose is elevated to the left and the bite plane is also elevated to the left. The spine is deviated to the right, which led to her scoliosis (lateral curvature of the spine). The back posture photo shows the scoliosis and the right leg is curved out to the right as well. (See photo C)

This patient is currently being treated with the Advanced Lightwire Functional (ALF) appliances.Within a month into treatment, the patient said that her vertigo and dizziness had disappeared, and so she resumed driving. Also, the spine curvature straightened and her right leg was not as curved as you can see in photo E.

Vertigo, dizziness, loss of balance and motion sickness are not usually caused by an inner ear problem. Patients who are experiencing these symptoms usually suffer from the misalignment of the upper and lower jaws, which causes the temporal bones to be misaligned leading to vertigo and balance problems