#171 The Truth About TMD Causes Social, Academic, Educational, and Health Care Delivery Disruption

The truth regarding Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, (TMD) remained hidden for 80 years because there was no one willing to put aside their fixed ideas and biases until I came along.  After treating TMD surgically for 36 years, I decided surgical treatment of the Temporomandibular Joint, (TMJ) was not  the long-term solution.  The dental profession had, at best, made halfhearted attempts to scientifically study the problem.  The profession’s best efforts were founded on the premise that the TMJ is a very unique and complicated joint.  That was the big lie.  That was the primary error that would never allow the truth to come out.  Every dental school teaches this, and no one was ever going to figure out the truth about TMD starting from this premise.  

The truth is, the fact is, the TMJ operates like every other joint in the body.  If dentistry had simply asked the question, “Why would the creator single out the TMJ to operate differently than the other joints?”, they would have come across a more rational conclusion.  Their original assumption was silly.  But academic dentistry did not use common sense and simply justified its inability to find a solution to the problem by proclaiming it’s an unusually complicated joint. 

Then a doctor comes along willing to set aside his fixed ideas, biases, and personal pride and does an independent study.  He finds, not only does the TMJ operate like all the other joints in the body, but discovers the common cause of TMD, CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, and the pathophysiologic mechanisms that allow chronic inflammation within the TMJ to create each and every disparate symptom.   That turned out to be a game changer.  It totally changed the paradigm for understanding and treating the problem.  You would think that information would be tightly held to the bosom like baby to mother.  However, the exact opposite occurred.  This discovery created the same effect as Galileo’s proclamation that the sun does not revolve around the earth.  So far, I have not been brought before the inquisition or placed under house arrest. 

• The Trial for Heresy (1633): After Galileo published his  

Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems 

 (1632), which promoted the heliocentric model, he was summoned to Rome. The Inquisition found him “vehemently suspect of heresy”. 

• Sentence and Recantation: To avoid potential torture and death, Galileo was forced to publicly “abjure, curse, and detest” his findings. He was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, which was immediately commuted to permanent house arrest. (1) 

No one likes to be made wrong, but the medical and dental establishment is especially stubborn when it comes to being made wrong.  Admittedly, medical investigators know they don’t understand what causes migraine headaches, but we know bad, bad headaches are the most common symptom of TMD.  The ENT physicians admit they have no solution for Meniere’s Disease, yet we know that tinnitus, subjective hearing loss and vertigo are common non-painful symptoms of TMD. And finally, 100% of patients seen at convenient care clinics with ear pain are prescribed an antibiotic for infection which is ineffective while the third most common symptom of TMD is ear pain. 

Trying to change the status quo is like trying to change the course of a super-tanker with a canoe paddle.  Is there a conspiracy here?  No, I doubt it.  What has occurred is a response to change in paradigm that generates belief that sustaining order is more valuable than agreeing to a fact that destabilizes it. 

The pharmaceutical industry is placed on its head if they must admit some of the prescription and non-prescription drugs they sell are not necessary.  The ENTs will have to learn how to treat Meniere’s disease as TMD or refer it to someone who will.  And the convenient care clinics will need to quit prescribing antibiotics for every ear pain and learn to distinguish actual ear infections from TMD. 

And most importantly, dental schools and dental school professors will need to eat crow and teach young dentists that the TMJ is not a complicated joint, operates like all the other joints in the body, and can be easily treated with a small oral device and protocol.  

1. AI response to: “What was the response when Galileo proclaimed the earth revolves around the sun?”