Patients with chronic heaaches are usually heavy utilizers of medical services. Unfortunately for headache sufferers the answer they seek is not found in mainstream medicine. Mainstream medicine has become ruled by evidenced based medicine. This is a departure from thousands of years of medical advancement based on clinical trials. Clinical trials are an excellent method of evaluating treat effects in an individual patient. in double blinded studies the effect of two medicatrions or an active medication and a placebo can be studied. Double blind studies are almost worthless when there are a large amount of variables that do lot lend themselves to clinical double blind trials.
The Harvard University Feinstein Institute for Medical Research founder recognized the value of clinical research. Neuromuscular Dentistry is a clinical science that has been shown to be "overwhelmingly successful" by Dr Barry Cooper as published in Cranio Journal. Neuromuscular dentistry is not easily testable by double blind studies due to the nature of the treatment and the complexity of the disorder. Not being easily testable does not make it any less successful. The treatment of chronic daily heaaches, Episodic Tension-type headaches and migraines with neuromuscular orthotics does not lend itself to double blind studies but the relief it provides headache sufferers is enormous. Often in science a decision needs to me made whether the needs of the patients outweigh the importance of research protocols. Put in a different light, the individual patient must be sacrificed on the altar of research. Neuromuscular dentistry is not well suited for research b ecause the practitioners are not researchers who may also treat patients but are treating clinicians who put the quality of each patients lives as the ultimate goal.
A new website http://www.ihateheadaches.org discusses how neuromuscular dentistry can be the answer to chronic headache pain. It is sometimes considered "holistic" treatment because it is based on returning the trigeminal nerve and the trigeminovascular system to a healthy homeostasis without the excessive use of medication. It is well accepted by the entire medical community at large that most headaches are mediated thru the trigeminal nervous system.
The use of heavy-
based on correcting aberrant brain chemistry via normal physiologic processes instead of drug regimens.
An explanation of the science that underlies Neuromuscular Dentistry can be found in Sleep and Health Journal at http://www.sleepandhealth.com/
Patients who have morning headaches should always be evaluated by overnight polysomnography (sleep study) for possible sleep disorders, especially sleep apnea and/or upper airway resistance syndrome. The two major causes of morning headaches are TMD and Sleep apnea.
