TMJ 'dysfunction' - Health implications

Hard to Argue with Success
Multiple Sclerosis – Your choice?

Background
Today is 16 January 2013, and I am a 46-year-old female from the USA, living in London these past 12 years. I’m a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant with an MBA and a long career as a global senior manager at a Big4 accounting firm. I started my career as an auditor for the first 8 years, progressing upward from there. I mention this background to highlight that it is my nature and trained approach to choose my words carefully and maintain a healthy scepticism, and I hope you will read my Multiple Sclerosis (MS) story bearing this in mind.

Medical background
I was diagnosed with MS at the age of 28 via MRI scans, spinal fluid analysis and observable conditions. I immediately performed research on the best options for health and then began the Dr. Roy Swank diet, among other approaches. I experienced results similar to those that Dr. Swank observed in his 33-year study relevant to the neurological grade at which I started the diet (Swank and Dugan 72-73). My main complaints years before the diagnosis of MS at the age of 28 included headaches, clicking jaw, crowded mouth leading to removal of all 4 wisdom teeth, ‘concrete-like’ jaw, daily headaches and migraines. My main complaints leading directly up to and after my MS diagnosis included Lhermitte’s sign, numbness on the face, loss of sight in one eye, spasticity, general limb weakness, dizziness, impacts on my cognitive function, severe fatigue, gradual decline of my sense of balance, and a host of other issues too numerous to mention that continued on and off for 15 years.

MS Management Before Dr Amir
Things that helped me manage my symptoms before starting Dr Amir’s treatment (Dr Amir, Dental Surgeon, London, UK) included the following:
• The Swank Diet, as mentioned above – this seemed to slow the progression of MS
• Elimination of dairy from my diet – this greatly helped lessen my frequency of headaches
• Inclined Bed Therapy
• Free form amino acid capsules – this seemed to help my energy levels
• Mercury fillings removals – this seemed to reduce a number of symptoms
• Acupuncture (a medical doctor from China who also practices acupuncture)
• Stress reduction

A Word on Drugs
I was told of my diagnosis by a well-respected neurologist in California. He had an open mind and compassionately presented me with a number of different options. Very soon after my diagnosis, I read everything I could find on the subject, and concluded that a drug approach would not be for me. It was explained to me that the drugs available at the time could only offer a reduction in the number of exacerbations and may cause me to experience a number of unpleasant side effects. My gut reaction was that I would have a better chance dealing with MS ‘naturally.’

My Amir Experience
When I was 43, my husband brought home the Evening Standard write-up on Dr Amir and I went to see him. What he said made sense to me, and I started his treatment. Within a few weeks, I was feeling much less fatigued and physically stronger. I experienced an ability to breathe more deeply than I’d ever been able to. This was the most noticeable difference. It was my husband, however, who pointed out, several months into the treatment, that I hadn’t complained about any MS issues for a while, and we realized together that I hadn’t had any evidence of MS since starting treatment with Dr Amir.

It has now been over three years since I’ve experienced any MS symptoms, save one, explained below. I’ve gone beyond simply the state of not experiencing MS. I can breathe to double capacity, have more energy, rarely experience a headache, can eat dairy! And chocolate, have a more attractive jaw-line and more prominent cheekbones.

My Watershed Moment
There was one symptom that came back, and I’m so grateful it did. One of the first symptoms I experienced when I was 28 that prompted me to seek medical attention was Lhermitte’s sign, i.e., when I bent my head forward I felt tingling all down my back and the back of my legs. In September 2012, nearly 3 years since I’d had any exacerbations or any signs of having MS at all, my Lhermitte’s ‘scar’ reappeared during a particularly stressful time and I felt deflated.

I scheduled an appointment with Dr Amir, and he made a new brace for me while I waited. Just before retiring that night, I felt the Lhermitte’s ‘scar’ and it reminded me to use the new brace as instructed. Afterwards, I bent my head and the Lhermitte’s sign had completely disappeared and remained so. My ‘scar’ had healed in two minutes flat. As it sank in, and I considered all I had thought about MS in light of this new ‘evidence’, I actually started to cry, a rare occurrence because I knew at that moment that 22 years of fear, and hope, and of being careful, and my mother’s tears of fear for my potential bedridden life had been unnecessary. My jaw had needed to be realigned; I hadn’t had multiple sclerosis.

I felt relief and then anger and then gratefulness - gratefulness that I had had the fortune to cross paths with Dr. Amir, a new thinker, who has changed my life experience.

Message to Medical Professionals]
I have had the fortune to be advised by some of the brightest medical practitioners around the world, and I now hope they will allow their natural sense of curiosity to explore this surprising experience. It would have been wonderful to avoid those years of uncertainty. Those years, however, have made me who I am today, so it’s not so much a feeling of regret as one of anticipation. I am expecting great things from the medical profession in the future.

From a business perspective, it seems to be a very attractive proposition; except, obviously, to those in the business of managing symptoms. I see other applications for Dr Amir’s approach, beyond the avoidance of sickness, involving athletes and raising their performance. The physical strength and performance improvement I’ve experienced during my treatment, having been a weight lifter and competitive Irish dancer in my younger days, would definitely interest any athletes looking for an advantage.

Postscript:
Why did it take me three years to write this? I have hesitated to write my story until I was completed with my treatment with Dr Amir, which I am not - primarily because I travel extensively and have been out of the country for a significant portion of the last three years. Something happened, however, over the Christmas break that made me change my mind. With conflicting holiday schedules, I went 4 weeks without wearing a brace, and given that I have not completed the treatment, I experienced a number of issues mostly related to my neck, head, face and eyes that couldn’t be relieved with pain medicine. When I, completely exhausted, finally managed to see Dr Amir after the holidays, it was within 10 minutes of wearing my new brace that everything cleared, and it was dramatic. This story needs to be told now.

Reference:
Swank M.D. PhD, R. L. & Dugan, B. B (1987). The Multiple Sclerosis Diet Book. DoubleDay: New York

I hope it's appropriate for me to respond.

Huge congratulations on regaining your health. It's a travesty you went for so long without addressing the real cause when the signs were so clear from the beginning. I am in a somewhat similar situation, although I have only been ill for 3.5 years and have just in the last couple of months linked my condition to craniofacial abnormalities, whether my treatment is a success or not it is already clear to me that there is a big problem here, within the dental field as well as the medical field at large. I saw so many dentists, consultants and specialists in the last 1-2 years, and only when I came to see an implantologist who also by chance happened to be an orthodontist were my obvious jaw issues identified which eventually led me to Dr Amir.

Your symptoms prior to MS have all the hallmarks of TMJ dysfunction, and so looking at this from an external perspective, the sceptic would ask is this not a mere case of misdiagnosis? My initial impression after speaking with Dr Amir is that we are most likely dealing with a particular subset of patients within each disease classification, if you imagine a venn diagram; ME/MS etc. would be a large concentric circle and then there would be a smaller overlapping circle containing those with craniofacial asymmetry derived illnesses. However his claims are much more inclusive than that, and so the litmus test would be to take a group of people (assuming such people exist) who don't have a history of dental problems, who don't have any of the jaw related symptoms, and see if they too respond to the treatment.

I am still learning about the parallels and more importantly the differences between MS and ME, and one that stands out is that MS has a far more specific diagnostic criteria, and therefore the potential for misdiagnosis is far lower. That would appear to make two possibilities more likely, that either craniofacial asymmetry derived illnesses are indistinguishable from neurological illnesses such as MS or can masquerade themselves as such, or that neurological illnesses such as MS are craniofacial asymmetry derived illnesses. Dr Amir of course would assert the latter, but I feel that the burden of proof or the strength of evidence required is much much higher when dealing with the second claim.

In any case, it is clear that there is an astonishing lack of information out there as well as a lack of education in every area of medical care from GPs to dentists to neurologists. You mentioned that you saw some of the brightest medical consultants, I have also invested heavily in order to see some top consultants who tested me for everything from Lyme disease to gastro-intestinal parasitic infections to autonomic dysfunction. If only a single one of them had knowledge about the devastating systemic effects things like TMJ dysfunction can have then it would surely be something they look to check as part of their diagnostic process. In that sense, part of this problem lies at the hands of the dental/orthopaedic fields who say absolutely nothing about the potential severity of something like TMJD; they only mention headaches and dizzyness but nothing more severe than that, and neglect to mention the clear overlap with other more severe diseases. It's no surprise therefore that people with serious debilitating illnesses overlook that as a possibility, is this not as an important part of the picture as the unwillingness of the societies of neurological diseases to take this explanation into account? How can you expect them to take it seriously when the field that currently houses that type of condition doesn't even take it seriously itself? Apologies if any of these questions seem slightly naïve, I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this.

Finally, I have to raise a couple of concerns and I'm sure as a sceptic yourself you must have taken this into account: if after two, going on three years of treatment for what is ostensibly a physiological disorder, the treatment of which therefore must have involved a gradual reversal of whatever the physical abnormalities precipitating the condition were, how could removing the brace temporarily trigger such a significant relapse? 3 years of progress evaporates within four weeks and then returns after 10 minutes? The cynic or indeed the dreaded psychiatrist would suggest that this is more likely to be placebo effect than an actual neurological response. I also wonder if the observations (particularly the objectively verifiable ones), which led to a diagnosis of MS would still be made now? Are you cured according to MS diagnostic criteria? What I'm yet to understand is whether Dr Amir's treatment is having a verifiable effect other than the subjective improvements reported by patients, because that is what could really add the most evidential weight.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

Dear P,
Thank you for taking the plunge and writing about your experience, also thanks for giving us your background it does add to the value of your story. You are right the story does need telling. I first heard about this treatment 2 and a half years ago at the CCSVI conference in Glasgow, that our group and the Essential Health Clinic jointly organised.
My daughter has MS and she is currently being treated by Dr Amir, and although as is usual in 'MS' some of her symptoms are the same as your but others are different, she does not suffer from headaches, but does have l'Hermitte and some difficulties with breathing and swallowing, vision problems are different to yours, but the main problems she has are the difficulty in walking, suffers from extreme weakness and has a disabling intention tremor in her left arm.
Ella followed the Swank diet and took free form Amino acids for several years but these actions did not seem to make any difference to the progression on her condition. She is now under the care of Dr Amir since September and we are hoping to see some improvements in the next few months. She had extensive orthodontic treatment as a teenager and a couple of years later was diagnosed with MS, this may be a coincidence, but now that I understand the anatomy better I think it was the cause of her problems. Time will tell.
When Ella has some positive news to report, I will make it my business to circulate this information and encourage people to look into the possibility of this treatment.
Ella had CCSVI treatment that made a small difference to her condition and did appear to slow the decline she was experiencing, but until the situation causing the problems in the first place is removed it seems that long term benefits cannot be sustained.
Thank you for your contribution,
Best wishes,
Michele

I had a new patient come from Belfast
This is her email:
"As I have been told by the medical profession that I have no options left, I have absolutely nothing to loose now, so I am very keen to consider alternative treatments to improve my MS. Please send me the link for the on - line questionnaire please."

This Email was received one week after starting treatment:

Hi Amir

I have only had my brace for a week but already I am a million times better than last week. I have no numbness in my feet or legs, the relentless fatigue has gone, I have lots of energy and I am walking further than I have been able to for about a year. It is a miracle, I am feeling so positive and I am going from strength to strength. I still have a slight limp and weakness in my legs but then I haven't been walking properly for about 7/8 years. It is like having to learn to walk all over again but, without the balance difficulties it is so much easier.

I will be over the 2nd weekend in Feb. I am really looking forward to seeing to then so I can update you on my progress.

Ohh... I am spreading the word as people are amazed at the improvements in my health:)

Thank you

Further update 27th January 2013:

I have booked my flights to come over on .......... I should be with you about 12am. I am continuing to improve, I still have a bit of foot drop and weakness in my legs when walking but all the fatigue, heat sensitivity and numbness has gone. I have lots of energy and I have my life back, It is a real miracle, thank you