#13 The Wise Old Doctor and TMD

The consensus among everyone, the patients, the physicians, and the dentists, who deal with the symptoms of TMD/TMJ is that “Nothing Works”.  I recently had a conversation with a very well known and highly professionally placed orthodontist who quoted his orthodontic professor and mentor as saying: “The best way to treat a TMJ patient is to send them elsewhere”.  This type of comment and view point is not meant to be funny or ironic, but rather a comment on the preservation of the practice success and sanity of the health care provider.  This was the state of affairs and consensus when I started my dental and medical education in 1969 and had not changed one bit when I decided to decline doing further TMJ surgery and begin research in 2011 in order to see if I could figure out what no one else had figured out about regarding TMD.

What I discovered about TMD/TMJ is well documented in this series of articles and elsewhere.  The only challenge remaining is overcoming the ingrained, educationally embedded consensus that: “Nothing really works when treating TMD”.

The era of modern medical training began with the Carnegie Foundation “Abraham Flexnor Report” of 1910.  Soon thereafter, the Rockefeller Foundation instituted the rush to encourage pharmaceuticals all based on petroleum organic formulation as the potential solution of physical illness.  Prior to these two benchmarks the introduction of anesthesia by a dentist, Dr. T.G. Morton in 1846 allowed a progression of surgical interventions as the solution to illness.  And before this physical manipulation had been used for centuries augmenting natural plant and homeopathic preparations.  The healing arts has been a progression of bench mark events advancing knowledge and care but simultaneously limiting reliance on simpler treatment.

As of this writing  one can break down medical/dental care into three categories: 1) Surgery, 2) Pharmaceuticals, and 3) Physical Therapy of one kind or another. This later would include radiation therapy,  (The knife, the pill or the application of physics)

To date, the application of the knife, the pill, and physics has not solved the TMD conundrum.  But before the establishment relied on the knife, the pill, and physics, the wise old doctor would simply say: “If it hurts to use that part of the body, stay off of it”.  “If your elbow hurts, put it in a sling”.  “If your knee hurts, use a set of crutches”

That is exactly how the Urbanek Device and Protocol is effective in relieving the symptoms of TMD/TMJ.  The Urbanek Device and Protocol is a set of crutches for the TMJ.  Used correctly it will continuously and permanently decrease inflammation within the TMJ to the point the symptoms disappear.  How inflammation causes all the symptom of TMD is covered thoroughly elsewhere in this series of articles.