As a Gillespie Approach provider, there are times that you need to think out of the box.
A solid heavy man presented with headaches and neck aches over many years, more recently becoming quite intense. He had been a weightlifter, pushing the weights to the limit. He also was in a car accident in 2000 and wore a tight CPAP on his head for five years. He had a list of additional traumas.
He presented with a zero-second brain cycle and tight fascia in his neck and upper body. After the first visit of therapy, his brain cycle opened to 30 seconds, a nice session.
At the second visit more layers of his onion released and his brain cycle opened to ninety seconds. Before we started the third visit, his brain cycle was 100 seconds, but he told me he still had headaches. What was I missing?
He tipped me off when he said that his head felt good before he went to bed each night, but he woke up in the morning with a pounding headache. He either clenched or ground his teeth during his sleep.
Bingo. He was, in effect, creating his own headache issues. When his jaws closed with pressure, his brain cycle went to zero-seconds, causing the headaches.
I often saw this scenario in my periodontal/TMJ practice in the 1970s and made a lower jaw appliance for the patient to wear at night. The commonly used upper jaw appliance often restricts the maxillary bones, brain motion and was totally unacceptable. I always checked to make sure when the patient clenched on the lower appliance, the brain cycle was still holding nicely.
I told him to seek out a dentist who would make a lower appliance for him. Another option is to go deep inside yourself to find out why you are clenching, which few people do. A third option is to get strain-free to relieve the jaw tension, which few people do.
This story is a terrific teaching aide for that difficult head and neck pain patient—remember the lower jaw.
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