Healing begins with communication. Modern advances in medical science can keep the body alive without the brain, but our brains cannot live long without our bodies. When our heart or lungs shut down, or when the vital flow of oxygen is blocked from our brain, and carbon dioxide is trapped inside the brain tissues, intact brain cells rapidly breakdown as the cell wall is compromised, and the microscopic organelle's within the cell malfunction and disintegrate, and the cell rapidly dies. If enough of these cells die, then life in the organism as a whole is not sustainable. The brain dies. Those dead brain cells cannot be resuscitated. Known science does not permit a Lazarus Event after the brain dies.
It is reasonable to say that our entire life experience depends on the quality of communication between the brain and our body. The quality of this communication determines our quality of life. Cognitive scientist Guy Claxton observes, "that cognitive processes are not separate from senses and motor functions". As Claxton puts it, “the body, the gut, the senses, the immune system, the lymphatic system, are so instantaneously and so complicatedly interacting with the brain that you can’t draw a line across the neck and say ‘above the line it’s smart and below the line it’s menial.’” While his observation regarding the body extensions of the brain are astute, with advanced imaging and analysis, when we actually “draw that line” at this boundary, then measure the alignment of those functional spaces inside this vital corridor, we often discover displacements, distortions and malalignments that are directly linked with body-brain disconnect and disease in our sick patients. Conversely, in our formerly sick patients, we see a restored alignment of this functional channel known as the CCJ.
After two decades of caring for patients and performing the transdermal atlas positioning procedure thousands of times, and comparing pre procedural images to post procedure images, I am fully convinced that impedance and restrictions of flow along this vital corridor passing from the brain to the body literally makes a measurable difference in vitality, health and wellness of that individual. The evidence and outcomes are substantial and significant. We see that as the CCJ breaks down and distorts, our flow ebbs, our sizzle fizzles… and we lose power and life-force. Nutrients are not delivered. Used metabolites are not cleared. The brain tissues accumulate harmful proteins and the function of the brain begins to fail—slowly at first, then more rapidly as the person ages. Malalignment of the CCJ robs us of our life-force, and we lose full functionality because our form has broken down. We are not fully alive, but rather, in the words of Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride, we are just “Mostly Dead”
When the body is aligned with the head, the complex linkage between our body and brain is open and optimized, and normal function is restored throughout the body and brain. The two do not function independently. The first stage of healing is to restore this anatomical connection between the brain and the body. That’s what ALIGN is all about.
“Aligning the corridor between the brain and body opens up vital flow channels, bringing clarity, balance and function”
STABILIZE.
Form, Function and Time
The vital corridor which links the brain to the body is called the craniocervical junction. The craniocervical junction houses the brainstem, which is in essence, the bodies “fuse-box”. It encases the nerves, blood vessels and the vital channels which pass from the body to the brain. It is held together by a variety of connecting tissues which tolerate mobility, while providing stability. Ligaments, fascia and muscles. Ligaments provide stability and limit mobility. Muscles provide mobility and also limit mobility. Muscles are the “dynamic stabilizers” of the CCJ, and ligaments are the “static stabilizers”. Both are in constant contact with the nervous system. Longstanding imbalanced muscles can be reprogrammed and re-balanced with a reprogramming oral appliance.
Even if the static stabilizers (ligaments) are unstable from injury or overuse, muscles and repetitive firing of neurological loops can be activated to reprogram the muscles of the head and neck. Even if the muscles have become imbalanced, weak and lost their programming of alignment. Maintaining this alignment is how we heal. We heal our “form” through reprogramming our “function” over time. Neuroscientist Joe Dispensa has proven that the brain is rewired by firing our neuronal networks in a different way. The micro-architecture of the brain is literally changed when we ask it to do something different over time. It learns a new trick. This is how we reprogram adapted muscle memory—by asking the muscles to fire and behave in slightly different ways around the guidance of a proprioceptive device that is in direct communication with the brainstem trigeminal system. There are particular pathways that we must access in order to do this. A knowledge of those pathways and how they work is important. This is what our specially designed appliance called Equabite does.
The Cellular Language.
The body is organized into trillions of “smart cells”. These cells network together to form complex layers of interactive smart tissues. Individual cells talk to each other in a language called “signal transduction”. The body thrives or degrades based on cell-signaling. Cells “talk” to one another about the environments in which they live. If the body is placed in a stressful, harmful or burdening environment over time, it will rise to the essential needs of survival through small, metabolic adaptations—these adaptations occur at the cellular level first, and elaborate systemically. That is why dysfunctional adaptations over time can lead to the degradation of structure and cause the body tissue and metabolic pathways to actually change behavior and structure through repeated exposure to “function” or conditions over time. This phenomenon explains pathological adaptations found in heart disease, insulin intolerance, autoimmune conditions, bone spurs, chronic pain syndromes and almost ALL disease.
“Bringing balance and stability to a disordered and stressed system by realigning the vital functional spaces and corridors of the head and neck.”
As I have non-surgically repositioned tens of thousands of soft tissue junctions (made up of joints, muscles, spinal medullae, bone and blood vessels), I have found that head/neck stability is crucial to healing the body. I have often been asked by patients, “Once we balance and align structures, how do we stabilize them?” I have spent significant time and researched the answer to this question. “How do we bring this “stability’ to a highly mobile and functional junction?” You can’t put a neck brace or a halo brace on and expect to maintain dynamic functionality because a large part of health is the proper function involved in maintaining the active neuromuscular programs of ideal movement head, neck jaw and face movement. These means that in order to heal effectively and completely, you must improve of as the very least maintain motion and sensory dynamism, while at the same time, bring stability. This is the art and science of the Equabite appliance system. It is a “programmed” device that interacts with the central and peripheral nerve tissues dynamically and proprioceptively. In other words, we harness and reprogram the bodies substantial brainstem sensory-motor loops, thereby providing a continual barrage of “corrective postural signals” which interact and work to reprogram the sophisticated up-righting systems of the head and neck, upper trunk, shoulder and jaw. These messages are structurally “programmed” into the Equabite stabilization orthotic. This 3D technology influences these highly sophisticated sensory-motor loops. This is the way we can effectively bridge the gap between motion (function) and stability (form).
Incorrect function leads to postural compensation, imbalance and inflammation.
Ideal healthy function leads to decompensation and healing. You may ask, can this be done? Can you jockey posture in a truly effective and predictable way? The answer is yes. But you have to take guidance over the posture of the teeth, which enables control or influence over the “posture” of the mandible which engages functional governance over the structures connected to the mandible—important structures like the head, tongue, shoulders and neck. My first experience with this phenomenon was with its adverse effect when my own four children in 2003 all underwent bracket and wire fixed orthodontia. I noticed as both their doctor and dad that as their tooth posture started to move under the guidance of their orthodontist, their spines and bodies began to move in erratic and unpredictable ways. Could it be that a small and seemingly imperceptible force of re-posturing their teeth could alter and change their entire developing musculoskeletal system? My observation turned out to be more than correct. This phenomenon has been corroborated by numerous research papers linking bad posture, poor sleep, bedwetting, trouble concentrating, migraines, TMJ and many other symptoms and conditions to altered bite posture—including scoliosis!
“Stabilizing is the process of retraining muscles thereby restoring balance and optimal function . This sustained alignment allows for faster healing and long term health without long term treatment.”
GROW
Epigenetics and Stem Cells.
The living body is a dynamic form capable of responsive change and growth. The peripheral and central nervous systems make up the primary intelligent loops that communicate and facilitate the body’s adaptive survival mechanisms.
As I pointed out earlier in this section, external and internal “cues or signals” received by cells can cause tissue changes. For instance, muscle cells are imbued with such intelligence, that if you continually place them under increasing loads (say by repetitive work), they will respond to this environmental condition and emit signals through transduction to the adjacent cells thereby increasing the size and number of the muscle, blood, bone and other necessary cell types needed to “do” this work more efficiently. This messaging system extends out to nearby blood vessels which secrete nitric oxide and dilate to handle the increased metabolic load. Stem cells are signaled to morphologically differentiate and change into the varieties of cells that are needed for the new task at hand—including the formation of new blood vessels and nerve endings in a process known as neovascularization in order to deliver nutrients to the newly formed cell varieties. This is an example of our “smart tissue” at work, behind the scenes. We see this common muscle change/effect after regular strength training exercises.
What’s happening may seem simple and natural—and it is!! But it is also wonderful and knowable. The same signaling process occurs in our body when our immune system encounters a “bug” and responds by making special cells called antibodies to counteract and engulf the bacteria. Another example of smart tissue qualities being called into action is when calluses form on our fingertips after several weeks of guitar playing. What’s happening here? Our body cells are responding by becoming more efficient and protective in that particular environment. This is an example of the body’s ability to adapt and respond. This is innate intelligence in action, and we now know that this cellular intelligence is largely epigenetic in nature. Epigenetics can be summed up in a simple concept—Gene Environment Interactions. These cellular environmental interactions in our bodies are numbered in the trillions and trillions, but the concept is rather straight-forward and simple. Epigenetics, the environmental interaction with our genes, becomes the root process for structural change through stem cell differentiation.
Okay, now that I’ve given a brief overview of how the body cells talk with one another through signal transduction, we can begin to understand how a properly designed intraoral appliance can provide special signals by posturing the teeth which signals tissues of the face and mouth to express desirable changes that are both aesthetic and functional. Aesthetic because health and proper function is beauty.
Stabilization Appliance
There are literally hundreds of intraoral dental appliances on the market, and because they have a shape, and are placed in the oral cavity, all will cause change in function and almost all will cause change to the face, bite and jaw. Research has shown that changing the face and jaw posture can cause changes to the body below. It’s not a question anymore as to whether or not an intraoral appliance will cause a change in the entire body—it will. The more important questions are: what are those changes, and how will they affect your overall health? How do we anticipate, measure and monitor those changes?
Here are some important considerations:
1. How does the oral appliance affect the relationship of the teeth with one another?
2. Is the bite becoming more balanced and harmonious, or are the tooth relationships growing apart, anatomically and functionally?
3. Is the intro oral splint painful or uncomfortable to wear?
4. How long should it be worn?
5. Since all craniofacial pain syndromes are terminated in the trigeminal cervical system, how is the intraoral appliance affecting the jaw joints, the cranio-cercervical junction and the complex nerves that control the face, head, neck and airway?
6. Is it causing pain in the mouth, or other less discrete strains on the craniofacial system?
7. Is it correcting cranial strains and asymmetry, or locking them it into place?
8. How is the appliance affecting the brainstem and the upper airway?
9. Crucial and often overlooked, what is the status of the atlas through out development? (If the atlas complex is misaligned into the wrong place during the bite registration process, the appliance will be “encoded” with this postural information and will negatively influence the atlas joint complex to move into the wrong place when the appliance is inserted into the mouth. This can negatively affect the brainstem and blood flow to the brain--which can affect everything!)
10. How is the appliance affecting full body balance, function and posture?
11. How is the appliance affecting the autonomic tone?
I know many dentists, both as friends colleagues, and the fact is: the majority of them are not inclined or equipped to monitor full body processes or systemic health matters. Yet, they are the primary health professional that place intraoral appliances. Although some dentists’ will take body posture more seriously than others, there are still considerable limitations in guiding and measuring the complex interactions that oral appliances have over the neurology and musculoskeletal systems of the body below—and in many of the cases that I have seen, these changes are not noted or discussed in the dentist-patient relationship, and because they are left unaddressed and unattended, in certain and as of yet unidentified subsets of population that seem to be more at risk, these intraoral influences can trickle down and create health problems in other parts of the body. Research has shown, or rather demonstrated that this is true. That is why when we consider an oral appliance, I rigorously oversee the process along with our own internal dental specialist, or collaborate with a dental specialist of the patients choosing.
Bioengineering a Growth Appliance:
Designing and building an intraoral appliance that will optimally affect all the body systems and guide the craniofacial, craniospinal and body into a healthier state is no small undertaking. Though the appliance itself is relatively inert, it has a lot of impact in terms of complexity. I like to think of it as though we were designing and building the space station; all functions and structures must be considered from beginning to end, to ensure safety, progress and success. When we understand that an oral growth appliance produces growth trajectories for the face, skull, cervical spine, jaw, tongue, pharynx, heart and brain, we must be thoughtful and comprehensive in its’ design, because the “form” of that appliance or orthotic predicts its “function”. A design flaw in the appliance can create a downstream problem over time that might be difficult to detect and correct.
As a clinician, care must be taken to establish a diagnosis and treatment plan. Once established, it is appropriate to enter into a commitment to the time and technique intensive journey with that patient, shepherding the process, seeing that they reach the purpose and outcome of the treatment. There is no “guess work” in this crucial process.
In order to establish a treatment plan, we must establish a diagnosis. Many aspects and attributes need to be looked at and considered. The structural status of the craniocervical junction, stomatognathic system, TMJ’s, occlusion, disclusion velocity (DTR), upper airway status, head, neck and face muscles must be assessed, measured and documented. This takes not only specialized equipment and instrumentation, but the “know-how” to use them and interpret the findings.
Next, the functional quality of the nervous system, upper airway, sleep quality and posture must be assessed, measured and recorded. When these initial steps are accurately performed and accomplished, the patient will receive the dignity of a diagnosis. Diagnosis is crucial, because a treatment plan is a derivative of diagnosis. It follows then, the better the diagnosis, the more effective will be the treatment plan. (While the list of equipment and instrumentation below is crucial for diagnosis and treatment, simply having the equipment does not equal its’ skillful use.)
1. Digital 2D Xray system designed for upper cervical analysis
2. Large field of view Cone Bean CT system
3. 3D Airway rendering software, computer generated
4. Home Sleep Study system with jaw muscle sensors to detect and correlate timing of grinding and clenching
5. 3D Intraoral scanning, and oral orthotic design software
6. Digital posture and movement analysis for full body posture
7. Craniofacial EMG with simultaneous bite force mapping to measure form and function
8. Jaw Joint Vibrational Analysis system
9. TENS system designed for cranial nerves V and VII
10. Plantar force mapping sensors
11. Occlusal force mapping sensors
12. Orthotic build platform and CAD software
13. 3D SLA level printer for clean, concise and correct orthotic construction using safe, crystal clear materials. Usually designed, developed and delivered “while you wait”.
14. Oral appliance adjusting lab equipped with instruments and tools to measure, assess and adjust the orthotics. (pneumatic hand pieces, burrs, polishers, T-scans, EMG’s, sensors, tools and upright ortho-chairs)
15. A Protocol. A method and protocol that not only incorporates but understands how these tools can be effectively used throughout the treatment process to ensure success and safety for the patient.
These tools allow us to deploy our proprietary lift3D oral appliance system, which is as we say, “Designed, Developed and Delivered …while you wait.”
Every body has a unique set of problems which it is trying to solve through its' ability to compensate and adapt over time. Solving as many problems with one solution is the hallmark of a well-designed solution—and the telltale sign of a well-built appliance. Our Solution starts with establishing energy efficient, balanced relationships between the face, skull, spine, pelvis and feet, and all of the neurology that goes along with it, and encoding this information onto our intraoral appliance through a proprietary bite registration process called CCMR.
CCMR stands for Craniocervical Mandibular Registration—it is essentially an attuned bite and body. This process begins with a complex full body history and focused examinations of several body systems by specially trained clinicians who work together under one roof in what we have come to call The Chapman Method. The method itself provides the analysis and technology which guides the doctors throughout your care plan and process.
