Neuromuscular Dental Awareness Month

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Neuromuscular Dental Awareness Month

We mere mortals can’t help but admire sheer athletic prowess. Our favorite athletes make every move appear so effortlessso graceful. What is it in their makeup that makes them so gifted? Is it unrelenting will or the cyber vision of being a champion? Although there are many factors, the aspect of our attention is their neuromuscular and skeletal superiority.

Let’s go back to basic human anatomy and physiology and discuss peak performance. You need a balanced skeletal frame covered with muscles and nerves that are in total balanced harmony. You need proper sleep for repair and hormonal balance. You need a system that properly oxygenates for muscle recovery along with proper vascular circulation to pass the nutrients throughout the body to allow for efficient cellular metabolism and impeccable function to give the bursts of muscular energy and exceptional demands an athlete places on their body.

Think of it this way. You can travel at top speed when the highway is unencumbered. How difficult would it be if there were road blocks that made it impassable? The neural pathways need to be free of skeletal impingements and misalignments that cause pain and compromise motion. When they become blocked there’s a slowing of the brains transmissions.

Now think of a marionette. Each string that moves a body part can’t keep the doll’s formation straight if the lines get twisted or knotted. There is an adverse affect on the ability to move properly. The knots of the strings can be equated with the shortening of muscles of the body. This tug of war hampers the performance and the body becomes challenged or injured.

A neuromuscular dentist looks at all the oral structures for the presence of “roadblocks” interfering with the inter-relationship of the jaw joints, the airway and upper cervical spine. These areas of nerve entrapment create areas of pain that are symptoms of misalignment and structural tug-of-wars that compromise performance, longevity and brain function. Like “dominos”, once one part is out of alignment, there will always be a chain reaction just like seeing the entire row of dominos fall simply by knocking over the first one.

An often overlooked part of your overall health is the anatomy and shape of your mouth, tongue, and airway and the affects of the surrounding structures. Equally important is the way your teeth come together. Your bite either properly supports your jaw joints in front of your ears, or it will be compressed and impinge the neural and vascular structures that can affect balance and ringing in your ears. It can often cause pain in your ears or surrounding areas. It may escalate into head, neck, shoulder and arm pain.

If you are not sleeping properly your hormonal function is compromised, and a whole host of problems begin to show up such as high blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain, and increased risk of stroke.

Knowing if you’re neuromuscularly fit is vital because it provides a longer healthier quality of life.